Give Unto Me
by HonestFFWriter
Summary: Total AU. Hikari Yagami's life changed one day when she came into the possession of the Death Note. She never imagined how greatly it would change. Following Pairings: LxFem!Light, & more as story goes. Updated weekly.
1. Chapter 1

**Give Unto Me**

**By HonestFFWriter**

**Rated:** _M (duh)_

**Genres:** _Drama & Romance_

**Pairings:** _LXFem!Light, and others coming soon...  
><em>

**Summary:** _AU. Hikari Yagami's life changed one day when she came into the possession of the Death Note. She never imagined how greatly it would change._

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:** Explanation time. One of the reasons why I haven't been on for the last couple of years...Life. In college, holding down a job. Yeah, been very busy. I finally found some time for myself. For my other fanfic, Burning Desires, I have half the next chapter already done. However, I wanted to do a Death Note fic for quite a while now since these ideas in my head just won't leave me alone! I was inspired by a couple of DBZ fanfics about what it would've been like if a main character were an opposite gender or if they had any other long lost relatives and so forth. I decided to try one with Death Note.

I know there are fanfics out there where characters are the opposite gender, but I don't know if this kind of idea is done already concerning this anime. If there is one like this somewhere, just know that I did not mean to steal anything and that I want to give this a chance. I still hope you all enjoy the story, nonetheless.

Letting you guys know ahead of time, brace yourselves for some drama, heartbreak…and some romance. Enjoy!

* * *

><p><strong><em>Chapter One…<em>**

Looking at this place makes him sick to his guts…if he had any. It feels as if it's been so long since he had last seen this realm full of life like it once was. Quite ironic since he cannot remember what this world was like before it's been reduced to this, and he could only guess what would happen to his home if this keeps up. Nothing but barren wastelands, mountains, and if only he remembers where the large bones had come from.

Every day is the same damn thing. Nowadays, the creatures in this world are either wasting their meaningless time either napping or gambling their lives away. Nothing ever exciting happens around here anymore. What's the point of residing in this dying world if all you do is sleep and play?

**"Hey there, Ryuk. Would it kill you to join us? You should come play with us for a change!"**

That doesn't excite him, not even one bit. Hell, he's not even a bit interested. Aren't they sick and tired of doing the same thing every single day? Is he literally the only creature in this world who realizes this? Now that's just sad.

**"No. I'll pass."** He responded.

If only there was a way to kill this boredom. If only there was a way to have a change of scenery.

* * *

><p>"Listen for the voice of God then follow it, and in time you will find your salvation."<p>

Is she the only one in her class paying attention? Isn't the teacher noticing anything in class right now? Its times like these that she feels as if she's the only person around with common sense. All the other students are either whispering to each other, passing notes around, texting on their cell phones, or playing video games under their desks.

"Yagami, are you still with us?" Hikari snapped back into her senses as she heard the teacher call out to her before he asked, "Can you please translate the following sentence into English?"

Hikari pushed her hair back away from her left side of her face as she got up and turned the page of the book that they were looking over. She gulped down the saliva in her mouth and then translated out loud for the class to hear.

"Follow the teachings of God and receive His blessings, and so it shall be that the seeds will become bountiful and the raging storms will subside."

The class was silent for a minute. Hikari took a deep breath and braced herself for the whispers around her.

"Ugh, what a teacher's pet."

"Must she be such a know-it-all?"

"What a geek."

* * *

><p><span><em>"Today, at approximately 11:00 AM, a thirty-two-year-old man was found stabbed to death in his apartment in the city of Yokohama Karigara Prefecture. Karigawa police are treating this case as a homicide."<em>

_"In other news, today suspected murderer Naoki Tokuji was arrested in the district of Shibuya Tokyo. He is being held in custody facing murder charges for the brutal slaying of his common-law partner, who was only twenty-five at the time of her death."_

_"Police are now searching for forty-two-year-old Ichigo Sakura who is wanted by the police for the rape of three young girls whose names shall be kept confidential. Their ages ranged between fifteen and twelve."_

_"A mother has been taken into custody today for committing poisonous acts on her two young children, according to the police and their forensics."_

_"A man was found dead outside a local bar late last night. Police are ruling this case out as a murder when discovering a gunshot wound in the chest."_

Hikari watched the news along with many civilians on the jumbo television at a local news station. Along the way beforehand, she had heard many radio news of other crimes and actions that have taken place within her home town.

She leans her head down with a hurtful look on her face with her eyes looking down at the concrete ground below her.

"This isn't fair. Every day is the same thing."

...

**"This is all so…ridiculous."**

...

"This world is nothing but…"

...

**_"Rotten."_**

* * *

><p>"Another noticeable consequence is the extinction of many different species on our planet. These species are becoming extinct in a faster rate than anything in recorded history…"<p>

She tried to listen to the teacher, whom the students refer to as "Mr. Ben Stein" due to having a similar voice to the famous American actor and lawyer, through the whisperings and constant noises that the other students were making in the classroom.

Every one of her class is like this. Why aren't the teachers doing anything to silent the students? Are they even hearing the whispers, the recognizable sound of someone texting away, the 8-to-16 bit music coming from handheld video games? Maybe the teachers just don't care. Maybe they're just noticing it but are ignoring it. They don't get paid for scolding students, only to teach them.

Hikari looked out the window with her hair covering her left face like it always has. She has long brown hair and amber eyes, and was wearing those stupid dark sailor outfits the school makes female students wear. Why couldn't the girls also get to dress professionally like the boys are? What? It's not like they're just shipping the girls off to sea when they're done with school here and leave the boys to do all the professional stuff in terms of a career.

She snapped out of her thoughts when she spotted something very odd. As she was looking out the window, she noticed something black falling into the schoolyard. It collided with the ground below and just stayed there, like it came here just to lie about.

Hikari rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. She looked out where the black object had landed and saw that it was still there. As much as she wanted to go see what that was all about, it was best to wait until after school ended. Thank goodness this was the last class for the day.

...

School had finally ended for the day with the sun giving a golden glow, signaling almost the end of the day, with dark clouds looming above. It wasn't supposed to rain until nighttime, so it didn't matter to anyone without jackets.

With some of the students either heading home or hanging about around the schoolyard, Hikari walked out of the entrance wrapping a red scarf around her neck and adjusting her backpack. She then looked around to find the object that she saw fall earlier, and walked over towards the bushes of the schoolyard where the object supposedly landed.

She was a bit surprised when she saw it still lying there, that no one bothered to even pick it up. Hikari knelt down and picked up the object. She couldn't help but feel as if a small surge of lightning ran through her body like she was a lightning rod, but she quickly dismissed it.

Hikari stood back up and looked over the object, realizing that it looked like a notebook. She turned it over to see the cover.

"D-Death Note?" she read out loud. In big letters on the cover, it does read Death Note. Hikari remembers that some people tend to decorate their notebooks however they wanted, so it didn't surprised her to find something like this on the notebook. She looked up at the sky to figure out where the book had fallen from.

_Maybe someone dropped it from the roof?_

Hikari looked over the notebook again and saw that it was in good condition. Why would anyone bother to throw it out? Then again, she didn't see anyone on the roof from where she saw the notebook fall earlier, and the roof is usually a good place for students to hang out. At least that gives Hikari a good reason why there's a safety railing surrounding the edges of the school roof.

She opened up the notebook and saw to her expectations that it was just filled with lined paper. Maybe there's a name somewhere in the book so she could go return it to whoever lost it. What puzzled Hikari though was that there was nothing written in the notebook. No name, no address, not even a 'Dear Diary' topic.

"Hmm?" Hikari looked at the front page and couldn't help but notice something written right by the first page. She looked over it and couldn't help but compare it to instructions you'd see in a manual. The first sentence almost spooked her when she read over it.

_"The human whose name is written in this notebook shall die."_

Hikari shook her head a bit and simply closed the notebook. She held it against her chest as she turns around and starts to leave. What's this? The next big thing since chain letters? What is someone trying to prove? She remembered what she had read that the human whose name is written in the notebook shall die.

She raised her brows as she suddenly realized that she was still carrying the notebook. Why does she still have it? Should she just go put it back where she found it? Throw it away? Take it to authorities? Hikari sighed as a bead of sweat ran down one side of her face.

...

Hikari had taken off her scarf and sailor shirt showing that she was wearing a white tank top underneath. She sat on her desk right by her computer where she looked over the notebook. There must be something wrong with her to even consider bringing this home with her. She opened the notebook and looked at the instructions.

**Death Note**  
><span><strong>How to Use It<strong>  
><strong>1. The human whose name is written in this notebook shall die.<strong>  
><strong>2. This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind when writing hisher name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.**  
><strong>3. If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen.<strong>  
><strong>4. If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack.<strong>  
><strong>5. After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.<strong>

_So, it gives me the option of making anyone's death swift and painless or slow and painful,_ Hikari thought. _Who would go through all this trouble making these up for a prank?_

Is the Death Note really a joke? As if anyone would believe something like this was real. Hikari sighed before closing the notebook. She got up from her desk and walked over to her mirror, the only thing keeping her company was the sounds coming from the news channel showing on her TV. She pulled her hair out of her face and examined herself in the mirror, looking into her reflection's eyes.

Even though she's not showing it now, Hikari is timid, which is why she has difficulty talking to other people other than her own family. She was told that she was smart and gifted, which is what makes the other students jealous of her. Hikari is in her last year of high school, which she was really grateful for, 'cause once she gets into college, it'll help keep away any unwanted attention, and especially getting away from her enemies.

Hikari Yagami wanted to become a detective like her father. He was always her inspiration…one of two inspirations, actually. Her other inspiration was the world-famous detective who goes by the name L, who never fails a mystery, despite being mysterious himself. Hikari always idolized L since junior high, despite him never showing his face or appearance to the public, though she knew that he had his reasons.

Fighting for justice has always been her dream. When she was younger, she wanted to be a hero just like those heroes in her storybooks her mother would read to her as a child. Being a cop is okay, but being a detective is much more exciting than to be a cop, at least to her. Since she was young, Hikari was always smart and intelligent, being her father's little girl.

Though that made her an easy target for bullies.

Ever since her last year in elementary school, Hikari noticed how people have been mean to her. When she would tell her mother about this, she would always tell her that they're jealous because Hikari is more gifted than they are, but that didn't stop the constant teasing.

Her years in junior high were the worst, and although it lessened a bit when she entered high school, other students would make fun of her not only because she's gifted, but also because her father was also a famous detective…at least in all of the Kanto Region. Despite trying her best to fit in, Hikari would always get shunned no matter what she does. She stopped trying during her first year of high school. She wanted to focus more on her studies than to waste her time trying to make new friends.

Besides, she has her mother and her little sister Sayu around. It's not like she needs anyone else. Her father's always working and would be lucky to see him if he makes it home in time for dinner. Nonetheless, her experiences in school made Hikari into the timid girl that she sees before her in her own reflection. She can also be sensitive in terms of her feelings. That hard wall she tried to build crumbled down long ago, leaving behind only a scared little girl in the middle of a lightning storm all by her lonesome.

Maybe if Hikari were a guy, she bet she'd be more popular in school. Guys are always more popular than girls nowadays, anyways…

_"We interrupt this broadcast to bring you the latest news. The same assailant who had attacked six people in the shopping district of Shinjuku has struck again, taking eight people hostage at this daycare center."_

Hikari turned her head as soon as she heard. _"His hostages include of both children and teachers."_ Hikari fully turned around and walked over to the TV to get a better view on what the situation is, as a photo of an older man in his forties appeared on the right corner of the screen. _"The suspect has been identified as 42-year-old Kurou Otoharada, currently unemployed. We suspect that negotiations will begin immediately."_

It made Hikari sick to her stomach of how a monster like that man would exist in this world just to harm others. It's one thing to hurt people, but to have innocent children involved? That's a bit too far. Out of the corner of her eye, Hikari took notice of the notebook on her desk once again. Her eyes darted to the TV, then back to the notebook again.

_Does it really work?_

Hikari took a seat by her desk and took out a mechanical pencil. Before she could write the name down, a sudden thought came to her mind. _If by chance this guy dies, would that make me a murderer?_

That thought scared her a little. If the Death Note is real, and this Kurou guy dies, would Hikari be damned to Hell when she dies?

_"At this time, that is all the police is telling us."_

_"You can't help but feel worried for the safety of those hostages."_

_"You're absolutely right. We'll continue to cover this situation from here. We'll bring you more information as soon as it becomes available."_

The Death Note can't be real. It's just a fake. No one could really die, could they? Hikari turned her attention at the news again. These are just human lives. Killing is wrong. But then again, there are innocent lives at stake at the moment. If nothing is done soon, who knows what will happen to them. Especially the poor children.

It's not considered murder if you did it in defense, right? Plus, this guy was a wanted criminal…

Hikari turned her attention back at the notebook laying there before her. _Father taught me that a detective always has to make difficult choices in the line of duty, especially if it's in a dangerous situation. Well, since I'm bound to be a detective anyways…_

_Here goes nothing._

Hikari imagined Kurou Otoharada's face and began writing down his name on the top of the page. As soon as she was done, she eyed her clock on the shelf above her computer. She remembered that it takes forty seconds for the Death Note to take effect.

She dropped her mechanical pencil and leaned back against her chair while continuing to watch the news. To Hikari, it feels as if it's taking longer than expected.

Sure enough, forty seconds had already passed. She looked at her clock and then back at the TV, letting out a sigh. The Death Note's a dud.

"I should've known," Hikari muttered while turning off her lamp. She then got up from her chair and looked at the TV again. "Still, those poor kids…" She reached for the remote when she noticed a change of tone in the newscaster's voice.

_"Just a moment! We're seeing something here!"_

Hikari looked at the TV screen again and saw what was going on in the news. It looked like the police were trying to steer clear of whatever looked like what's coming out of the front entrance.

_"There seems to be movement in the front entrance!"_

The police then let through what seemed to be six children crying in fright with two teachers guiding them to safety. A feeling of relief went through Hikari like a passing cloud, which brought a smile on her face that they look alright.

_"The hostages appeared to be all unharmed! The SWAT Team is taking action and are now moving in! We don't know yet if the suspect has been arrested."_

Hikari watched what was going on. After a minute or two, Hikari hears the outcome of this hostage situation.

_"We now have confirmation! The suspect has been found dead inside the building! I repeat! The suspect is now dead!"_

Hikari gasped in fright, looking as if she had seen a ghost. She looked back at the Death Note in shock and looked at the name she had written down. "He's dead!?" she shouted unintentionally. Fear had claimed her heart as she turned her attention back to the broadcast.

_"The police are denying allegations that they shot the suspect."_

_"So it's possible that he feels himself cornered and decided to commit suicide?"_

_"Well according the statement by the hostages, the suspect suddenly collapsed. We won't know any details until we have a medical examiner on the premises."_

Hikari continued to stare at her TV, still in shock about what had happened.

_Oh my gosh! I killed a guy! Oh my gosh! I killed a guy! Oh my gosh! I killed a guy! No! Calm down! You didn't kill anyone! This is just a coincidence! It has to be! The guy could've been under a lot of stress for all I know!_

"Hikari!"

Her train of thought was interrupted when she heard a voice coming from outside her room. Hikari almost jumped. She clutched onto her chest as if she was going to have a heart attack herself.

"Hikari!"

She sighed in relief. Oh good. It's just her mother. Hikari immediately went to her door and stuck her head out. "Y-Yeah, Mom!?"

"Its 6:30, hun! Don't you have cram school tonight!?"

She knew there was something she forgot! It's one of her nights for cram school! Hikari responded, "Of course! I was just getting ready!"

Hikari shut the door with lightning speed and prepared to gather her things. She puts her sailor shirt back on followed by her red scarf and grabbed her backpack. Hikari looked over at the Death Note that was still lying on her desk. Without thinking, she grabbed the book, closed it, and shoved it into her backpack.

_For now, I'm not gonna jump to any conclusions. M-Maybe I should test it out one more time? What? No! What am I thinking!? If by chance this Death Note is for real, I might need to get rid of this! But how do I know if it really works if I don't give it another chance?_  
><em>Just in case, I should test it again on another criminal, perhaps a lesser-known criminal. If they're well-known, it might cause suspicion to the media, not to mention being covered.<em>

_But…should I?_

**That Night...  
><strong>

Hikari waited for her class to get started so it can be over and done with so she could try out the Death Note again. She fidgeted with the ends of her scarf as she watched other students coming into class and the clock just ticking away.

"Ryo buddy!"

"What is it, Sodou?"

"Weren't you going to lend me twenty dollars?"

"What? Again? But I can't do that."

Hikari looked at the corner of her eyes and recognized Sodou and his friends. They were the troublemakers of the classroom, and it's still a wonder that they're even still attending cram school.

_Hmm…come to think of it…No, I can't. I should avoid killing people I know._ Hikari leaned her head down where she laced the fingers of her hands together on her lap. _But…would the world even care if something happened to people like Sodou? People like…_

BANG!

Hikari escaped from her thoughts once again when she heard a loud banging sound right in front of her. Right before her were three girls, who were wearing somewhat inappropriate clothing. One has long blonde hair tied in a ponytail with blue eyes, the other has short brown hair with green eyes, and the other has long hair that was a shade of darker brown with brown eyes.

"Aww, what's the matter baby?" the girl with the blonde hair asked in a mockingly sad voice. "Bored with classes? If you think know everything, why not drop out?"

Hikari didn't say anything. Instead, she gave the trio a deadly glare, but this only made the girls laugh even more.

"Mean looks are so yesterday," the same girl said, before the trio turned their back on Hikari. "Don't want that face to stick now, would you? But then again, you've never been pretty to begin with."

The trio laughed once more before walking off. Tears of frustration came into Hikari's eyes, but she took a deep breath and rubbed her eyes before they could be let out. She's there to learn, not to start a riot.

_What about Ayumi, Kimiko, and Miyako? Maybe I can use the Death Note to have them commit suicide in the middle of the classroom if it's possible._ Hikari shook her head a little. _No. I said I should avoid using it on people I know and that's what I plan to do. But if only it was that simpler._

**Later…**

Hikari exited the building and breathed in the cool air of the night, not to mention that it smelled a bit damped, meaning that it'll likely rain soon. She walked by a group of girls who were talking to Ayumi, Kimiko, and Miyako. Hopefully if she's lucky, they won't notice her.

So much for false hope.

Miyako spotted Hikari walking by them and so she called out, "Hey Yagami! We're having a speed-dating party tomorrow! Wanna come!?"

"Don't bother inviting her," Kimiko spoke. "What kind of boy would want to date a freak like her?"

Ayumi, Miyako, and Kimiko, including the three other girls, started to giggle at that remark. Hikari growled under her breath before she storms off down the street. Soon enough, their laughter faded the farther she goes, the street lights engulfing the streets with bright glows with a few stores also giving a warm light. Hikari also noticed a woman walking in front of her, but she didn't care.

As Hikari continues her way home, she couldn't help but to look around the streets and buildings around her, with somewhat of a hurtful look. She couldn't help but to think, _Why do people like them have to exist? Would it really make a difference if they were disposed of? I don't know why society accepts them, but they don't deserve to be here, nor do they belong._

Hikari wrapped her arms around herself as if she was giving herself a hug. _It's just not fair. They treat others like crap and they can easily get away with doing whatever. It's sick!_

"Hey, pretty ladies!"

Hikari once again escaped from her thoughts when she heard what sounded like engines coming towards her, and they were getting louder the closer they get. Before she knew it, both she and the woman who was in front of her looked and saw that the two were surrounded by four guys, each on a motorcycle, and Hikari knew right away they were a gang.

"What's up, little ladies? Come and have a little fun with us!" One of them exclaimed.

"That's Takuo right there!" One of the other motorcyclists introduced. "He can smell some hotties from a mile away!"

The mentioned Takuo lowered his sunglasses a bit to see the two girls better as he introduced himself, "What's up, little ladies? The name's Takuo Shibuimaru! Well, what do you say? Come and play with us, ladies!"

Hikari and the woman watched as the three other motorcyclists got off of their motorcycles and circled around the two. Hikari had seen something like this in the movies before, and she didn't like what was going on. She took a step back towards the wall as the woman said, "Please, we don't want any trouble."

"Hear that?" One of the others laughed. "They don't want any trouble!"

"Aww, isn't that cute?"

Before they could react, Takuo grabbed the woman from behind while another one folded both his arms under Hikari's own arms, trapping them both in their clutches.

"W-What are you doing!?" the woman screamed.

"Let's go, boys!" Takuo shouted. "Strip 'em down!"

"You sure?"

"Let's go for it!"

Hikari tried to struggle while another guy reached under her skirt and feel him pull her panties down.

"What are you doing!?" She shrieked. "Stop it!"

Takuo and another guy began to strip the woman down too, while she tried to fight back.

"Please stop!" She shouted. "Please! Someone! Help us!"

The guy pulled Hikari's panties down completely and was about to reach his hand up under her skirt again. In a last-minute effort, Hikari gathered up whatever strength she can and kicked the guy in front of her right in the face, sending him down to the ground.

"Let go!" Hikari shouted, another idea hatching in her mind. She jumped back and collided with the guy behind who was holding her, making him land on his motorcycle sending both of them and it onto the ground. Hikari took the chance to pull her panties back up as fast as she could, and saw out of the corner of her eyes that the woman had struggled herself free as well.

The woman grabbed Hikari's wrist shouting, "Come on!"

They both took off running down the street, and heard Takuo shouting, "Hey, where y'all going!?"

They heard the loud motor, meaning that he was coming for them! In a last ditch effort, the woman suddenly pushed Hikari into a nearby alley. "Stay here while I lead him off!"

Hikari reached out for her as she took off, shouting, "Wait!" She saw a black blur pass her, and knew that it was Takuo going after that woman. She needs to do something to stop this, but what?

She raised her brows in thought, almost forgetting about something. But what if the Death Note is just a dud? It's a risk, but it's the only hope she has. Hikari took off her backpack and began to rummage through it to find the Death Note. Good. It was still there. She pulled it out and also took out a pencil from her backpack. Hikari opened it and started to write Takuo Shibuimaru's name down on the first page, right below the first name Hikari had written before.

Hikari remembered that she can also write down the cause of death, so to see if it would actually work, she wrote down next to Takuo's name 'accidental death'. She pulled up her left sleeve to show a watch on her wrist, and kept track of the time. If only it was less than forty seconds…

"TAKUO! WATCH OUT!"

That was when Hikari heard a loud crash. She immediately got up on her feet and stuck her head out of the alleyway, where she saw a huge truck crash right into something in the middle of the street. It looked like it crashed into a…a motorcycle?

"Oh shit! Takuo!"

"What the hell just happened!?"

Hikari watched in shock, the same feeling of fear and dread came back and began to clutch her chest where her heart resided, feeling as if cold water was pouring through her body. She started to gasp a bit before leaning against the wall for support, clutching the Death Note against her chest again as if for dear life.

_The Death Note…it's for real._

_**End of Chapter One…**_

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:** I feel like I should've done more, but again, I haven't written in such a long time, so my writing style's just...lazy, so to speak. I'm really sorry if this chapter feels rushed, or if the writing is just really awkward! I'm hoping that the story, and my writing, will get better as I continue writing this.

I'll admit, I'm not the best writer in the world. Maybe once I get the swing of writing better, I'll probably go back and rewrite this chapter. For now, I hope you enjoy.

I don't really care for reviews, but if you wanna leave one, be my guest. Other than that, I still hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter, nonetheless.


	2. Chapter 2

**Give Unto Me**

**By HonestFFWriter**

**Rated:** _M (duh)_

**Genres:** _Drama & Romance_

**Pairings:** _LXFem!Light, and others coming soon...  
><em>

**Summary:** _AU. Hikari Yagami's life changed one day when she came into the possession of the Death Note. She never imagined how greatly it would change._

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

Okay, this chapter right here I had a bit of a problem with. I think I had to rewrite this at least two and a half times just to get this going where I wanted it to go. Still, I hope you guys enjoy it nonetheless.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter Two…<strong>_

**"Now then…I better get going." **

**"Headed off somewhere, Ryuk?"**

**"Hate to tell you, but our whole world looks like this."**

**"It's true, but I dropped by Death Note."**

**"You really messed things up, didn't you?"**

**"Wait a minute. Didn't you trick the old man into giving you a second book? Don't tell me you dropped two of them."**

**"You must have some idea where you dropped that thing."**

**"Yeah…the human world."**

**"What?"**

**"What?"**

* * *

><p><strong>Five Days Later…<strong>

Hikari immediately stepped into the house where she felt the warmth wash over her. It was a good thing she remembered to bring her rain jacket. She took off both of her shoes and placed them by the door and placed her coat on the coat rack to dry off.

"Well, you're home early."

Hikari turned and smiled at her mother Sachiko. She nodded and responded, "Uh, yeah. I uh tried to get home as fast as I could. I mean, what with the rain and all…"

Sachiko nodded in understanding. "Believe me, I know the feeling." She looked out the window and saw how hard the rain was pouring down, not to mention the flashes of lightning before the rolling sound of thunder came into view. Afterwards, she turned towards Hikari. "Right, I almost forgot. Isn't the results of your Nationwide Exams supposed to come in today?"

Hikari raised her eyebrows. "Oh! I almost forgot!" She reached for her backpack and took out a slip of paper before handing it to over to her mother. "Here you go. So, what do you think?"

A gleeful look came to Sachiko's face when she saw Hikari's score. "Oh my goodness! Number one again! These are the best scores you've had yet!"

"Th-Thanks, Mom," Hikari showed a small smile as she picked up her backpack. "I think I'm going to study a bit more, so uh, is it alright not to disturb me? At least until dinner?"

"As you wish, honey."

Hikari walked passed her mother up the stairs, really grateful to have a mother like her in her life. As soon as she made it to her door, Sachiko called out from below the stairway. "Oh, Hikari! Do you need anything at all, dear!? You can ask for whatever you like!"

Hikari looked back down at her mother and said back with another smile, "I'm alright, Mom! I'll let you know if I do though! Thanks!"

With that said Hikari entered her bedroom…and locked her door. She puts down her backpack and looked at it with interest. Hikari reached into her backpack and took out her Death Note. She made her way to the desk and turned on the lamp. She sat down on her chair and opened the notebook. Most of the pages were still blank, save for the first page, which still held the first two names of the people she had killed five days earlier.

_God please forgive me. I already know I'm going to Hell for this…but they were bad people, weren't they?_ Hikari closed the book and stared down at the cover of the Death Note. The night she realized that the Death Note was real, she was in a state of shock and barely spoke a word the next day and a half. She wanted to throw it out like she had planned, but she never got around to getting rid of the Death Note. Why?

Hikari puts the Death Note down aside, crossed her arms, and laid her head down on the desk with her arms as a pillow, with a troubled look on her face. After realizing that it's dark powers are for real, she just couldn't afford to throw it out. Hikari was a bit afraid that if some kind of maniac has a hold of the Death Note, they might use it to go on a killing spree. Maybe that's why. Maybe she can't get rid of it because she's afraid that someone else might use it to kill innocent people if they figure out that this notebook is for real.

Hikari opened her eyes and turned her head where she can see the Death Note laying there. She was still given an opportunity to write down more names since it's still in her possession, but who else's names could she write down? It's another big risk that could cause another accident like with that Takuo guy whose gang tried to rape her and an innocent bystander. She was glad her family never heard of that incident, otherwise her mother would never let her go outside ever again.

Another thing: will she have to write in it again? Even if Hikari wanted to write another name down, what if it gets out of hand? What if it becomes an addiction to her? What if she goes crazy over it? What if she ends up becoming a serial killer? What if she ends up becoming a homicidal maniac? What if...what if she becomes a monster?

**"You've taken quite a liking to it."**

Hikari gasped when she heard a dark voice. She immediately sat up and looked around her room for the source of where that voice had come from. Her hair moved through the air while looking around.

"Who's there!?" She called out.

The only response Hikari got was a chuckle. It wasn't until the thunder flashed outside her window did she found the source. Standing in one of the dark corners of her room, was a tall, dark being. It had very pale skin, what seemed to be a black suit with matching feathers over his shoulders, strange accessories like a heart-chained earring, bracelets, and rings, a belt around his waist with two chains attached with matching feathers, matching spiky hair, and yellow eyes with the pupils being red.

Hikari screamed in fright as she fell off of her chair and landed onto the floor. She looked back up at whatever that thing is. She crawled back a bit, and noticed her trashcan right next to her. She immediately grabbed it and shouted, _"GO AWAY!"_ before throwing the trashcan right at it.

But it was fruitless as the trashcan merely phased right through it. The creature let out an amused chuckle at that pathetic attempt.

By now, a shade of blue crept up on Hikari's face out of fear, her back now against the wall. It was bad enough that Hikari found a notebook that can literally kill people and had become a murderer, but now this thing too!? What is that thing? Why is it here? How did it get in her room? Has it come to kill her?

**"No need to act surprise,"** the creature said, looking down across the room at the frightened girl, whose shoulders are starting to shake out of fear. **"I am the Shinigami Ryuk. That used to be my notebook. Judging by your behavior, I see you understand that what you have there is no ordinary notebook."**

Hikari was still so frightened by this creature, named Ryuk, that she can't even talk back. Though she was a bit curious when she heard that word 'Shinigami'. Hikari gulped down the saliva in her mouth as she tried to find her bearings.

"Sh…Shini…Shinigami?" She stuttered, trying to force herself to talk. Hikari then remembered what a Shinigami is, causing her eyes to open wide. "A-As in…as in _God of Death_!?" She shrieked. If she could remember correctly, a God of Death is usually a god with the power to kill people and to take their souls. It frightened Hikari even more. She immediately wrapped her arms around herself like before as she focused her eyes on the ground, not wanting to even stare at the Shinigami standing across from her.

"Y-You s-said…that that notebook…was yours?" Hikari managed to ask. She closed her eyes and turned her head away in fear. "If that's what you're here for, then take it back! You can just take it and leave now!"

This somewhat surprised Ryuk. It's true that humans may fear creatures, and it's rare for them to be afraid of Shinigami since they barely come to the human world often, but is this girl really that scared of him?

**"That is not what I'm here for,"** Ryuk explained. **"The Death Note becomes part of the human world the moment it touches the Earth. Since you were the one to find it, the Death Note is now yours."**

By this point, Hikari wished that she could turn invisible at that spot. If a Shinigami didn't come here for the Death Note, then that means…by this point, Hikari was now scared out of her wits. She still refused to look at that…that monster. She wrapped her arms around her legs and somewhat curled into a ball, as if it was a way to protect herself.

"Then…that means you're here to take my soul, right!?" Hikari asked. "I-I used the Death Note! I-I have to pay for it, right!? Is that why you're here!?"

Now this was just getting ridicules. Ryuk could tell right away that this girl was quite timid, but he never knew she would be this overemotional as well. Where did she also come up with the idea that he came here for her soul, anyways?

**"Where did you get that idea? Is that some kind of fantasy you humans came up with?"**

Hikari could hear heavy footsteps heading in her direction, but she was too scared to even do anything, not even to open her eyes. The sounds had ceased, though Hikari could easily tell that he's right in front of her. Isn't this the part where he rips her soul out of her living body now? What's with the stalling?

Hikari almost jumped out of her skin when she heard Ryuk's voice from above her.

**"I'm not gonna do anything to you."**

That's what made Hikari open her eyes out of shock. She looked up at Ryuk and watched him knelt down in front of her to get a better view of her as he continued, **"You could say there are other…rules regarding the Death Note that even we Shinigami have to live by. Of course, if you do not want the Death Note, simply give it to someone else. If you do though, I'll have no choice but to erase any memories of the Death Note from your mind."**

He simply tapped Hikari on the forehead as if to prove his point. She flinched at the touch, but quickly got over it. Hikari had stopped shaking, but she was still afraid of the Shinigami before her.

"S-So…th-there's nothing to p-pay for using the D-Death Note?" Hikari stuttered.

**"Let's just say that price for using the Death Note will be the agony and fear of humans who ever used the Death Note,"** Ryuk explained further. Well that's _reassuring_! Hikari felt a bead of sweat roll down on her face, with a cold and frightened look in her eyes. She tightened her grip on her legs as she couldn't turn away from Ryuk's gaze. **"And when your time has come, it will fall on me to write your name in my own Death Note."** He gestured his hand over at a holder attached to a chain that was hanging from his belt, giving Hikari a look of Ryuk's Death Note.

**"Be warned, though. Any human who has used the Death Note can neither go to Heaven nor Hell for eternity. What awaits you when you die? Why, _nothing_, of course."**

A small gasp escaped from Hikari's mouth. She was so scared, she's beginning to feel nauseas as if she's about to vomit. All of this was just happening so fast, she doesn't know if she could take it or not…

KNOCK! KNOCK!

Hikari immediately looked over at her door as she heard her mother's voice on the other side. _"Hikari!"_

Ryuk stood back up as he looked down at Hikari. **"Go answer it. It's alright."**

Hikari looked up at Ryuk for a moment before using the wall behind her to help her get up from the floor, though her legs were still shaking. She looked over at her desk for a moment, and then took a second to put the Death Note inside one of her drawers. Hikari then went and opened her door to find her mother with a bowl of apples in her hands.

"W-What is it, Mom?" She asked.

Her mother smiled as she explained, "Oh, the neighbors came by and brought over some apples, so I brought some for you in case you get hungry." Sachiko blinked her eyes as a confused look came on her face. "Are you alright, honey?"

"W-What do you mean?" Hikari asked.

Sachiko placed a hand over her daughter's forehead. "You look a bit pale and you're shaking. Hmm…you don't have a fever, though you have been out in the rain for who knows how long." Hikari was confused. Why isn't Hikari's mother not noticing a Shinigami standing in her daughter's bedroom? Sachiko handed Hikari the apples. "Here. Why don't you go laid down and I'll make you some warm tea?"

Hikari nodded slowly. "O-Okay. Th-Thank you Mom."

With that, Hikari closed the door and leaned her back against it, letting out a sigh in relief that Sachiko didn't see Ryuk, but she was a bit confused why that is. She almost shrieked when she opened her eyes to see Ryuk standing dangerously close before her.

**"The notebook you found originally belonged to me, and since you're now its owner, you're the only one who can see and hear me."** Ryuk took an apple from the bowl Hikari was holding and held it close to his lips. **"In short, the Death Note is also the bond between Hikari, the human, and Ryuk, the Shinigami."**

_B-Bond?_ Hikari thought as Ryuk took a bite out of the apple in his hand. The first thought that came to her at the time was of the bond between friends, but Hikari doesn't want to be a believer in false hope. She gave that up a couple years back.

"I uh…I s-still have a…a question," Hikari said closing her eyes to gather her thoughts. "W-Why does it…why does it have to be me, though? I-I mean, out of everyone else…" Hikari opened her eyes, and saw that the bowl in her hands was completely empty. She watched as Ryuk gulped down the other two apples. "R-Ryuk?"

Ryuk wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve. **"Apples are worth the trip to Earth. How do you describe these? Juicy?"**

"D-Did…did you hear me?" Hikari almost stuttered.

**"Of course I heard you!"** Ryuk raised his voice a bit, causing Hikari to almost flinch again. **"What? Did you actually believe that I chose you to be the new holder of the Death Note because you were so smart or something?"** Hikari averted her eyes away looking somewhat down. This wasn't the first time she had heard something like that. **"Believe me when I say that I didn't choose you. I just so happened to drop it around here and you just so happened to pick it up. All of this was just an accident. Nothing more, nothing less. That's why I wrote the instructions down in English because it's the most common language in the human world."**

Hikari then placed the empty bowl on one of her nightstands and took a seat on her bed. In a way, she was somewhat relief that she wasn't actually destined to actually be the owner of the Death Note. She could feel the fear inside her had somewhat ceased, though she still feels nervous around Ryuk. Maybe it was because of his appearance or the fact that he actually is a Shinigami. She knew he wouldn't kill her…at least until her time as Ryuk stated, so she's safe…for now at least.

"If that's the case…th-then why did you…did you drop it here in the first place?" Hikari curiously asked. "It's…not another a-accident, is it? Y-You even…even took the time to…write the instructions i-in English like you said."

_**Why is she still stuttering like that?**_ Ryuk thought. _**Is she **_**that**_** timid? Or is she still afraid of me?**_

Ryuk rubbed his chin as he answered, **"You're wondering why, huh? Well, long story short…"** Hikari literally squeaked when Ryuk bended down to her level where his head was right next to hers. **"I did it because I was bored."** He whispered in her ear in a low, scary, harsh tone.

Hikari blinked her eyes in confusion as Ryuk pulled back. "B-Bored?" She repeated.

Ryuk shrugged as he explains, **"To tell you the truth, there are many other Shinigami that exist in the world we call the 'Shinigami Realm', though we barely have much to do these days. Most of the time we're either taking naps or gambling. If you spend your time just writing names down, the others would simply laugh at you for working too hard."** Hikari averted her eyes away again when she heard that last sentence. That also sounded familiar to her.

**"Even if you were to write down the name of a Shinigami, it would be pointless because we are immune to its dark powers, and since we live in the Shinigami Realm, it also brings us no joy to kill humans either. So I thought it would be more fun to come down here and see for myself."**

During the time he was talking, he also took that time to simply walk over towards the desk and took out the Death Note from the drawer. Ryuk opened up the Death Note and only saw the two names written in the first page.

**"Though, I'm not surprised,"** he continues.** "There were other Death Notes that were dropped into the human world before, and those who use it would only write so very few names in."**

Hikari simply looked away and stared down at the floor as she wrapped her arms around herself. "W-Well…I…uh, i-it's because…w-well…"

**"You're afraid, aren't you?"** Hikari could only nod.** "Then tell me, why write down these names in particular? And why did you only write down the cause of death for that guy who got hit by that truck?"**

Hikari snapped her head up and stared at Ryuk with a shocking look on her face.

**"What? Was it something I said?"**

"H-How d-did you…that is…I uh…"

Ryuk knew what she was going to ask, so he gave her his answer, **"We Shinigami can also look into the human world from the Shinigami Realm. You could say I've been watching you from the moment you first found the Death Note."**

Hikari tightened her grip as she tried to explain, "W-Well I…th-the first name I wrote down! Th-this guy, h-he was holding th-these ch-children h-hostage a-and i-it was a-an accident! A-And and…"

In a blink of an eye, Ryuk placed his hand over Hikari's mouth to keep her from stuttering anymore. This had frightened Hikari as she couldn't help but to shriek only for it to be muffled by Ryuk's hand.

**"Seriously. Are you that timid or are you still scared of me?"** He removed his hand after a few moments. **"Just think about what you want to say and then say it. No need to overreact, alright?"**

Hikari leaned her head down where her hair was covering her face as she said, "S-Sorry. I-It's…just that…I'm not…I'm not used to…to talking to p-people I…j-just met…h-human or n-not. Besides…I…I don't…talk m-much, anyways."

**_Of all the humans in this world to have found the Death Note…it just _had_ to be this one,_** Ryuk thought out of annoyance. At that moment, he was seriously having second thoughts about dropping the Death Note into the Earth, but how else was he supposed to kill his boredom anyways?

**"N-Never mind then,"** Ryuk spoke. **"I already saw how it happened, so there's no need to speak of it."** He stared down at the Death Note he still has in his hands. **"You did it out of spite to protect other humans and yourself. I get it. But how come you haven't written any more names down then?**"

"I just…w-well…wasn't sure…at first," Hikari spoke, pulling her brown hair away from her face. "B-But you were right…I…I was afraid…I was afraid of k-killing…a-and going mad."

**"Going mad?"**

Hikari nodded. "After using the D-Death Note, I…w-well, there's just something a-about it that I-I think would make p-people want to use it a-at least once...b-but that means…e-even if I w-would...th-that I would…I would kill more. I-I'm just afraid that I…that I would b-become like a…a homicidal m-maniac, that I w-would…I would…"

Ryuk placed his hand over Hikari's mouth again in hopes of silencing her. **"So you were just afraid that you would become a monster, right?"**

Hikari nodded and simply muffled, "Mm-hmm."

**"Trust me, you are far beyond becoming a monster,"** Ryuk said truthfully. **"I see that y****ou look nothing like a sociopathic killer…nor have the mind of one. If you're afraid of going to Hell, don't bother. Like I said, humans who use the Death Note would enter nothingness when they die. So what's there to worry about?**"

He finally removed his hand from Hikari's mouth as he continues. **"Besides, you did what you thought was right. Those men you killed were criminals and deserved to be punished, and what better way to punish them than for them to die? They were bound to be punished for their actions sooner or later, weren't they?"**

"Well I…" Hikari looked up against the ceiling in thought. "I guess that's true…"

**"You felt it, didn't you? That rush? It felt good to punish them, didn't it?"** Hikari slowly nodded. **"By the way it sounds, it's as though you want to judge more, don't you?"**

"Y-Yeah…" Hikari said. "B-But I don't want to kill anyone who hasn't done anything wrong…or at least…innocent...what else can I use the Death Note for?"

Ryuk was somewhat glad that she was stuttering less, because that was just getting so annoying he felt like ripping even his own Death Note in half out of anger and annoyance.

Suddenly, Hikari looked as if she just came up with something.

"Maybe that's it…" She whispered.

**"What's it?"** Ryuk asked.

Hikari did something that Ryuk didn't expect her to do…she smiled. It was a small one, but it was a smile nonetheless. "This world is filled with nothing but sinners and criminals. It's because of them that this world is suffering. They think of this world as their playground...thinking that they can do whatever they want, getting away with their crimes. At first, I wanted to become a detective like my father so I could help stop them…

But is there any other better way to deal with them than to go through that much trouble to track them down and punish them?" Hikari uncrossed her legs and placed her hands on her lap as she looked down deep in thought. "Maybe…if I were to use the Death Note to my advantage…I can finally make a difference in the world. I can…I can help make this world a b-better place for everyone to live…" Her hands folded into fists, a feeling of hope swelling up in her fragile heart.

"I have a feeling i-it will be a long time before that could be accomplished though," Hikari continued. "Even so, at least it would be for a good cause, you know?"

Ryuk let out a chuckle. **"Even if you do accomplish that…you would be the last bad person left."**

"The last bad person left?" Hikari repeated, before looking over to Ryuk. "I-I know killing is wrong…b-but this wouldn't be the first time something like this would happen, right? When everything is said and done with, this world will be cleansed of evil and will be filled with kind, hardworking people." Her lips trembled at her next thought. "So that way…no one will ever be judged ever again."

**"What's the point though? You sound as if you want to become a god yourself."**

"A…a god?" Hikari gave it some thought before she decided. "No…Just because I want to rid this world of evil doesn't make me a god. I-I just don't see myself that way. I just want to do what's best for the good of the world. I'll need to plan everything out f-first before I get started." Hikari smiled again at Ryuk. "Thank you, Ryuk."

Alright, now this is just confusing. Ryuk's not used to be given thank-yous, so this is somewhat new to him. **"F-For what?"**

Hikari surprised Ryuk by immediately wrapping her arms around him by the torso and said, "For dropping the Death Note, and...well, w-without you…I-I wouldn't have figured all of this out. So…thanks."

Ryuk looked a bit surprised by this. Never before had something like this ever happened to him, let alone being hugged. He simply scratches the back of his head and said bluntly, **"Eh, you're…welcome? And sorry but uh…"**

Ryuk suddenly became see-through to Hikari's surprise, but it also caused her to phase through him and onto the floor. Ryuk then changed back to normal as Hikari looked up to him to see what had happened.

**"That's just my reflexes, not me. You see…I'm a guy, so I tend to get a _little_ shy sometimes."** He watched Hikari get back up on her feet. **"Fair warning though: don't think I'm gonna be helping ya out or anything just because I'm sticking around. Just a spectator is all I am."**

Hikari nodded in understanding. Even if he just gonna stay for a long time and would do nothing but watch, to Hikari, it does felt a little nice to have some company around.

The storm had finally ceased with the sun shining through the dark clouds, beaming a beautiful light into the still-dark bedroom. Hikari looks out her window and saw how beautiful the world looks outside her bedroom. Maybe this is a sign...The sign of a new world, a much better world free from evil. Hikari likes that idea. She could be like a guardian angel protecting the world from evil and making it a better place to live by eliminating the vermin who rots this world.

_I have nothing to lose, anyways. If no one else is going to change this world, it might as well be me._

Hikari picked up her fallen chair and took a seat at her desk. She turns on her computer and opens up the Death Note.

It was time to get to work.

**_End of Chapter Two…_**

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:**  
><span>Again, had issues while writing this chapter, 'cause I wanted this to go as smoothly and naturally as possible. And just to clarify again: this is just a retelling of the Death Note anime series, so if you're going to ask when other characters, like L, would show up, you'll know exactly when they'll show up. Also, it's a little thing called _development_. Ever heard of it?

Aside from this story being LxFem!Light centric, I don't want to spoil anything, but there will be other couples and romances too later on. If you want to make a guess, go for it, but I'm not gonna say until I get to it in the story eventually.

Still hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Still many more to come. Until next time.


	3. Chapter 3

**Give Unto Me**

**By HonestFFWriter**

**Rated:** _M (duh)_

**Genres:** _Drama & Romance_

**Pairings:** _LXFem!Light, and others coming soon...  
><em>

**Summary:** _AU. Hikari Yagami's life changed one day when she came into the possession of the Death Note. She never imagined how greatly it would change._

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

Don't worry. A lot of things will happen soon! I'm planning to update each chapter every week or so. I hope it will be worth the wait, though.

I've already got a couple questions in my PM that asked me why I would make Fem!Light in this story timid and somewhat different than from the other Fem!Light stories. Well, because I want to try something different and go at a different angle than what you would find in most fanfics. I was originally planning to have Hikari have the same personality as Light, but I felt that it would be too close to the anime series, and to be honest, I want to try different aspects and write in the story some little what-if scenarios that I thought would fit if I went with Hikari having a different personality, so that's what I did. I won't reveal much of what's going to happen as the story progresses, but I'm really looking forward to sharing it with you guys.

But why would I make her timid? Just because I write the story doesn't mean I don't have an explanation. There are actually good reasons of why Hikari is timid that'll be explored more as the story progresses. If you read the first chapter, you might have a good idea, and this chapter may also shed some light (no pun intended). It's a good lesson to learn, otherwise there's just no point.

Besides, did you skimmed over that one sentence in the first chapter, that if Hikari were a boy, she'd be more popular? Quite ironic, huh?

With that said, enjoy the chapter!

* * *

><p><strong><em>Chapter Three…<em>**

"He found himself overwhelmed with happiness and satisfaction, knowing that at long last his dream had finally come true."

Hikari tried to listen to the teacher while the other students do what they usually do every day: pass notes, have whispering conversations, play videogames, and there were a couple of students who were also listening to music on their mp3 players. As usual, the teachers aren't doing anything about it. Hikari fought to urge to sigh out of frustration. It's no wonder why the educational system is plummeting as of late.

"Ms. Yagami?" Hikari looked up at the teacher when she heard her name being called. "Please recite this last line for us."

Hikari nodded when she stood up and picked up a book on her desk. "Okay."

In truth, she hated it when she was called on, but only because she believed that her teachers know that she's a straight A student and expected the best out of her. Hikari turned a couple pages until she found the page she was looking for and read out loud, "After finally making his dream a reality, he was overwhelmed. By both the magnitude of his achievement and by the joy and happiness that it brought him."

"That was very well done, though I'm not surprised of course," the teacher spoke as Hikari took a seat. "Absolutely flawless. Very good."

Hikari leaned her arms against her desk while leaning her head down a bit where her long hair covered half of her face like it usually does as she heard the whispers once again.

"What a freak. She only talks when the teacher calls her."

"Maybe she's demented."

"Or she's just another one of those antisocial nerds."

"What does her family see in her? Especially her dad?"

A hint of hurt was shown in Hikari's eyes as she looked down at the notes she had written as she could feel the hurt swelling up in her chest again. Everyone silenced as the teacher announced, "I'm afraid we'll have to leave it at that for today. That's all the time we have left."

Unbeknownst to everyone, Ryuk was simply sitting there on the floor right next to Hikari's desk the whole time, bored out of his mind having to listen to teachers teach and students laze about. He saw the small commotion that happened and couldn't help but to see Hikari's reaction to those whispers.

Ever since he first came to the human world, it's always the same thing. Whenever Hikari solves a problem or was told what to do by a teacher, there would be these whispers by a few other students who seem to shun her greatly. Ryuk still doesn't get why that is. Hikari never spoke a word about it. Or it could be that Ryuk never got around asking why.

The school bell finally rang to signal the end of the school day with the sun over the horizon. All the students sighed in relief as the day was finally done and over with. Some of the students had begun to leave while others hung about. Hikari was simply putting away her things in her backpack as Ryuk next to her got up and leaned back against the wall where he was stretching his arms.

**"I thought that would never end,"** He started complaining.** "It's so boring here. How do you do this every day?"** He noticed that Hikari was already making her way out of the classroom.** "Hey. Where are you going?"**

* * *

><p>Hikari was about halfway across the schoolyard with Ryuk flying right behind her with a huffy expression on his face…if one were to look hard enough. That guy could barely show any emotion.<p>

**"Didn't you hear me, Hikari? Don't ignore me!"** Ryuk complained.

"Please be quiet," Hikari whispered through her teeth. "No one else can see and hear you, so I can't talk to you with everyone else around."

Ryuk crossed his arms and looked away in a hissy fit.** "Well aren't you boring?"**

Hikari looked around to make sure no one was paying attention. Good. No one has. She adjusted her red scarf a bit as she makes her way to the front gate while hearing Ryuk flapping his wings behind her. Now if she could just leave the premises without incident, she'll be just…

"Don't look now! It's that nerdling again!"

Hikari stopped as both she and Ryuk found the source of that voice. To Hikari's horror, it was Ayumi, Kimiko, and Miyako standing idly by the rose bushes right by the gates. Hikari gave them another glare, which only made the trio giggled.

"What's wrong, Hikari?" Miyako asked rather mockingly. "Lost your voice again? You really are such a baby, you know."

"Being intelligent is so a hundred years ago," Ayumi said crossing her arms. "Maybe if you try to be lay back like the rest of us then people wouldn't think you're such a freak."

"Too late! She is!" Kimiko blurted out, causing the trio to giggle again.

Hikari simply held her head up high as she continued her way with Ryuk following closely behind. Ayumi couldn't help but to laugh again at Hikari's movement. "Look at her. She thinks she's better than everyone else. It wouldn't hurt to put you in your place like before, Hikari. Just you watch and wait."

Hikari ignored her, but another look of hurt came into her eyes. She wrapped her arms around herself as if she was cold and this was the only way for her to warm up a bit as she and Ryuk pass the school gates.

**"Okay, now this is getting ridicules,"** Ryuk spoke. **"It's been like what? A few weeks since I first came here, and you still haven't told me why these people have something against you. I fail to see why they simply think of you as a lesser being."**

_Maybe because I am,_ Hikari said in her mind, though she wouldn't admit this to Ryuk…at least not yet.

**"Don't think I never noticed how you're usually offended by all of this worthless teasing. We Shinigami are smarter than that. Why not just use the Death Note to end it?"**

"End what?" Hikari finally spoke.

**"Why, you can use the Death Note to make them stop hurting you, of course,"** Ryuk explained.

_Good. I thought he was implying that I would use the Death Note to kill myself._ Hikari looked around and noticed there was not a soul on the sidewalk on her way down the street, so she explained, "I can't. Don't you remember my plan?"

**"I uh…it must've slipped my mind."** Ryuk looked away somewhat embarrassed.

"I plan to use the Death Note to get rid of criminals," Hikari explained. "I'm almost done eliminating all of the world's most dangerous criminals. While I'm doing that, I'm getyomh rid of anyone who may still be on the run from the law, though I may also deal with criminals in prison every now and then. As soon as I'm all done with that…maybe I'll consider it."

**"Didn't you say it would take a long time to get all of that done?"** Ryuk pointed out.** "What if takes you like say five more years? You'll have to endure all of their harsh talks until then."**

Hikari stared at the concrete ground at the thought. As much as she wants to use the Death Note to get rid of Ayumi, Kimiko, and Miyako as well as everyone else who mistreats her, she also doesn't want to use the Death Note for personal gain. She could just have them die from suicide or an accident, but it would be too suspicious if they simply died all at once.

For now, she'll have to worry about the criminals and then worry about her troubles later.

Speaking of which, that's exactly what she planned to do when she gets home.

* * *

><p>The sound of Hikari's scribbling down in the Death Note was drowned out by her radio blaring out music from the speakers. She looked up at her computer screen, scrolled down a bit, and then continued writing. Ryuk stood behind her with an apple in his hand watching her keep writing.<p>

**"I'm surprised, Hikari,"** Ryuk commented.** "Usually humans would be reluctant to write down this many names, especially in three weeks."** Ryuk then stared at her computer screen and asked, **"How the heck are you getting this information?"**

"Uh…internet?" Hikari replied as she continued to look back and forth between her computer and her Death Note.

**"Come again?"**

"W-Well, nowadays nothing is ever kept secret over the world wide web," Hikari explained. "All I did was type down list of current dangerous criminals online and here you have a full list ranged between America, France, and including here in Japan. It's not that tough to find, really."

Ryuk took a bite out of the apple in his hand while Hikari was explaining. Since Hikari had gotten used to Ryuk's company, she was able to stop her stuttering and pauses whenever they talk, much to Ryuk's relief, though Hikari would sometimes be a bit uneasy what with Ryuk being a God of Death and all. **"So that's how you're getting these names. But why are you so busy writing in the Death Note?"**

The song in the radio had ended before the announcer called out, _"That was Bon Jovi's 'Living on a Prayer', ladies & gents! For those of you who are just tuning in, we have another batch of songs coming up all the way from America! After this break, we have Be Like That by Three Doors Down followed by Everybody's Fool by Evanescence! Stay tune!"_

**"Hey Hikari, I'm talking to you."**

"S-Sorry about that," Hikari said, scrolling down on her screen a bit more as she studied the faces of the criminals' images before her. "It's just that I only have a limited amount of free time in my hands right now. I still have things to do like study, do homework, and not to mention cram school. I'm not a night owl so I can't just stay up late as much as I want to."

She wrote down a few more names before letting out a tired sigh. "I think I'm done with these guys for the day." Hikari moved the mouse around and started to type on her keyboard. "Now onto wanted criminals."

Hikari froze when she heard her doorknob shake. She and Ryuk turned around towards the door as it shook again.

_"Huh? Weird. Hey Hikari, what's going on? Why's your door locked?"_

Hikari blinked, immediately recognizing that voice. "Sayu?" She calls out, "What is it!?"

_"If you have some time right now, can you help me with my homework!?_" Sayu asked from the other side of the door.

"Uh, yeah of course! Just one minute!" Hikari called back. She immediately took the time to close out the internet and turned off her computer screen and then shoved the Death Note into one of the drawers. Hikari made it to her door and opened it to reveal her little sister holding a textbook in her hands.

"Hey Hikari," Sayu greeted, showing off her book. "We're doing some Quadratic Equations in Math right now." She walked into the bedroom before Hikari closed the door. "Sorry for barging in like this. I know you're studying right now." She then had a tiring look on her face as she said, "But I'm like the only kid in my class who doesn't get any of this stuff, so thanks so much."

Hikari nodded. "Y-Yeah."

Sayu took a seat by Hikari's desk as she sets her book on the desk. Hikari walked over to her sister when she heard Ryuk spoke, **"I'd be careful if I were you, Hikari. If anyone else touches that notebook hidden in that drawer right now, they'd be able to see me, too."**

Hikari froze as the feeling of dread washed over her. _What!? He's telling me this now!? Why didn't he tell me this in the first place!?_

Sayu notices how silent Hikari was. Even though her older sister was always quiet, she was never this quiet. Sayu placed a comforting hand on her sister's arm as she asked, "Hey, is anything wrong, Hikari?"

Hikari snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Sayu's voice. She turned her attention to Sayu and said, "O-Oh, nothing's wrong." She smiled as Sayu opened up her textbook. "What is it that you need help with? What are you stuck on, exactly?"

Ryuk took a seat on Hikari's bed as he watched Hikari help her little sister out with her homework. Sayu turned a page as she admitted, "Well, all of it, I think." She chuckled nervously.

* * *

><p><strong>The Next Day…<strong>

A huge conference was being held at the International Criminal Police Investigation located within the country of France. Usually they would hold meetings regarding any global threat whether it would be terrorism, environmental crimes, and other worldwide catastrophe worth of interest or noting. All the different representatives of each nation, however, were planned to discuss the recent actions that have taken place all over the world as of late.

"There have been about over 150 reported deaths we are aware of, and that was just within this past week. Autopsies show that they all died of a heart attack. The majority of them were all criminals who are labeled as dangerous, as well as incarcerated criminals and wanted fugitives. I think it's safe to say that there are also other criminals who deaths have yet to be accounted for."

"In this case, the death toll could be over 200 or so."

Touta Matsuda overheard some of the other officials chattering about the subject, until he caught someone at the corner of his eye walking by and taking a seat next to him. He recognized the man as his boss Soichiro Yagami.

"Morning chief," Matsuda greeted while bowing his head. "They started the meeting without you."

"It's fine. I had to take an urgent call from headquarters," Soichiro explained.

The chattering had ceased as the meeting continued on, "At any rate, these victims are all just criminals waiting to face execution sooner or later. Perhaps we shouldn't…"

"Why should it matter if the victims are guilty or innocent!? Last time I checked, murder is _still_ murder!"

"It's still early to consider these a homicide."

"Then how the hell do these people all have heart attacks at the exact same time!? That's no coincidence! It's murder!"

"You think it's possible to simultaneously kill all these people at different locations all over the world?"

"We're treating this as an elaborate murder plot that's being carried out by a large secret organization!"

"If it is a large organization, I'm sure I'm not the only one here who suspects the FBI or CIA."

Someone on the other side of the conference room shouted out,_ "I dare you to say that again! I dare you!"_ that echoed throughout the room.

One of the representatives got up from his seat and waved his hands up hoping to get everyone's attention. "Now now! This is not the time to be joking around! We still need to confirm if these are either homicides or just mere coincidences!"

The other representatives once again fill up the entire room with chatter as the meeting continues on while few continue to come up with theories and facts on how and why this was happening and what the cause of it is.

"But how? Autopsy reports show that in every one of these cases, all of the victims die of a sudden heart attack no matter the age!"

"Investigating a series of heart attacks are pointless! I don't see what else we can learn!"

"Absolutely! If these people were either shot or stabbed, we could at least have something to go on!"

"If that is the case, then we have no choice but to bring in _L_!"

As soon as that was spoken, the chattering came to a halt. What was once filled with loud voices now became dead silent at that mere mention of this 'L'. Many of the representatives huddled into small groups and silently whispered to one another.

Matsuda was a bit puzzled. At the mention of this L, it became so quiet, save for the whispers, that he could literally hear crickets chirping somewhere. He leaned over to his chief and whispered, "Hey Chief, what is this L they're talking about?"

Soichiro leaned back against his chair. "Right. I forgot that this is your first time at this conference." He leaned his arms down against his desk as he looked deep in thought.

"We don't know L's real name or whereabouts. In fact, we still don't know what he looks like. However, he's managed to solve every single case he's taken on, and he was able to tackle on the greatest mysteries the world has ever known. He hides in the shadows, but he's the best of the best. A last resort. Our trump card."

Soon afterwards, the conversation began to continue on. "But I heard that this L is extremely arrogant! He only takes on cases that he's only interested in!"

"That's exactly right! And besides, we don't even know how to contact him!"

The entire auditorium was filled with echoes and echoes of chattering representatives throwing out ideas and suggestions. Some suggest that they could forget L and just do the investigation themselves. Others suggest they may have to make a public announcement in order to get in contact with L, but were afraid that by doing so, it'll throw the entire world into panic. They have enough problems as it is what with people worried about an epidemic on heart attacks in prisons and such. A minor few suggested looking through the phone book and looking up only those whose names begin with 'L'. You can bet Matsuda may have something to do with that.

_"L is already on the move!"_

The entire auditorium was silent once more, and all the representatives turned their attention at the sound of walking footsteps echoing through the room. They noticed a man clad in a hat and jacket making his way towards the center. He stopped at a desk that was situated in front of a screen and turned his attention towards the representatives. Silence was still present in the room as many of the representatives couldn't find it in them to speak at this man's presence.

"Gentlemen, L has already begun his investigation looking into these incidents!" This man declared.

One of the heads of the ICPO finally found his voice. "H-Hey. You're Watari, aren't you?"

Matsuda turned towards his chief and asked again, "Hey Chief, who's that?"

"That man is the only person who is known to be in contact with L," Soichiro explained. "No one knows his true identity either."

"Everyone, please be silent!" The man, Watari, announced out loud. "L would now like to speak to the diligence!"

In his hand was a suitcase. He placed it on the desk and opened it, taking out what looks like a white laptop computer. Watari placed the computer in the center of the desk and opened it. As soon as he did, the screen behind him flickered a moment. On the computer screen, followed by the large screen in front of the ICPO auditorium, was what looked like the letter L in a rather peculiar font.

The entire auditorium were once again speechless at this sight.

_**"Greetings to all of you at ICPO. I am L."**_

* * *

><p><strong>"What are you doing there, Hikari?"<strong>

Hikari was sitting on her desk with many scraps of wood and different tools around her. She was wearing protective goggles as she started to put together what looks like a wooden board.

"You said anyone who touches the Death Note will see you, right?" Hikari reminded Ryuk. She reached towards the drawer on her right, takes out some measuring tape, and started to measure the inside. She nodded in agreement before she reaches for a drill. "I don't think I can carry the Death Note around with me as much as I want to. I was going to tell people that I only wrote these names of criminals in it so I could study them because I was going to be a detective like my father and L.

But if they see you, as well the rules inside, they'll know something is up." Hikari began to drill a hole in the center bottom location in her drawer, trying to be as careful as possible so as not to make the hole wider than need be. "I don't want to end up taking drastic measures. I want to use the Death Note to eliminate criminals. The last thing I want is to involve innocent people, and that includes my family."

Ryuk scratches his chin as he said,** "Makes sense, I guess. But what does that have to do with what you're doing now?"**

"I'll show you when I'm done," Hikari said. Satisfied with her work, she withdrew her drill and went back to work on that wooden board.

**"So...who is this L you mentioned?"** Ryuk asked. **"I also remember you mentioning him a couple times before."**

Hikari lifts her goggles up from her eyes as she looked back at Ryuk. "L is known to be the world's greatest detective. My dad used to tell me all about him when I was in junior high. He's actually one of the reasons I want to be a detective."

**"Why's that?"** Ryuk asked again.

"Well..." Hikari turned back towards her desk as she leans up and looks up at her ceiling in thought. "L is known to have solved many dangerous cases, and also discovered many secrets of the world. No one knows who he really is or what he looks like, not even my dad." She leans forward a bit. "But there was never a case he couldn't solve. He's dedicated, he's really smart, he never backs down no matter how hard the challenge..."

**"From the way you said it, it sounds as though you're fascinated by him."**

Hikari spun her chair around and couldn't help but to smile a little. "Well...maybe I am. Y-You could say he's one of my inspirations. I was hoping that maybe someday..." She averted her eyes to the ground. "When I do become a detective, I want to work right alongside him. Even if it's only for once, it'd be nice to work with one of my biggest inspirations..." She also looked away kind of embarrassed. "That, and maybe an excuse to work with my dad, of course."

**"Inspired by a man who has never shown his face,"** Ryuk wondered out loud. **"It's like admiring a phantom with the face of a demon yet has the voice of an angel."**

"Uh...you got that idea from when we watched _The Phantom of the Opera_ last week," Hikari pointed out.

**"Well it's true."**

* * *

><p><em><strong>"The difficulties of this case lies in it's unpresidented scope, and make no mistake. We're witnessing an atrocious act of mass murder here, one that is unforgiveable."<strong>_ The representatives listened in their seats as L explains. **_"This case cannot be solved without the full cooperation of the ICPO. That is all of you representing the police agencies from all over the world._**

**_You need to make the decision to fully support the investigation at this very meeting."_** Many of the representatives looked at one another in thought, as if debating if they should support the investigation or not, some simply shrugging their shoulders as if 'why the heck not?'.

They turned their attention back towards L when he also announced,_** "Also, I require additional cooperation from Japan's national police agency."**_

Soichiro and Matsuda literally jumped out of their seats at his last statement. If L had already begun the investigation, why is he suddenly needing help from a police agency? Especially from Japan?

"But why Japan in particular?" Soichiro asked out loud.

_**"What if the guilty party is an individual or a group? There's a strong possibility that they're Japanese. Even if they're not, they're most likely hiding in Japan."**_

Matsuda turned to look at his chief somewhat still confused over this whole situation. Soichiro asked again, "What is all of this based on?"

_**"Why Japan, you ask?"** _L asked. _**"I think I'll be able to provide you the proof of it after I directly confront the culprit."**_

"A direct confrontation?" Soichiro repeated.

L ignored him and continued on, **_"At any rate, I would like to set up the Investigation Headquarters in Japan."_**

It felt as if a ton of bricks had suddenly crashed upon Chief Yagami. At least they would have something to work with concerning these heart attack incidents, but he never expected any of this to happen so fast, nor has he ever expected for his home country to be somewhat the ideal location of where this mass murder is originating from. He doesn't like it. Not one bit.

* * *

><p>Hikari laid back against her bed with her hands behind her head with her long hair fanned out over her sheets and pillows. She looked up at her ceiling with a feeling of success swelling up in her chest. She can't remember the last time she actually felt this good.<p>

**"I take it you're done with your little project?"** She heard Ryuk asked.

Hikari nodded. "Mm-hmm. I set up a little system so no one could find the Death Note." She averted her brown eyes over to her desk, hoping to give Ryuk the hint. Alas, Ryuk got it.

**"In your desk? Doesn't seem to be an ideal place to hide it."**

Hikari sat up and got off of her bed, pushing her hair away from her face as she walked over to her bookshelf. "They say looks can be deceiving, after all." She bent down on her knees and took out what looks like an encyclopedia holder. Hikari takes out a thin book and opened it up, revealing it to actually be a container with a little hatch inside.

She opened the hatch to reveal a set of keys in it. Hikari puts the book-shaped container back in the encyclopedia holder and placed it back at the bottom of the shelf, before getting back up on her feet and making her way towards her desk. Hikari placed the key in the lock on the right drawer, and unlocked it.

It was what was inside that puzzled Ryuk.** "Isn't that just a plain old diary?"**

"Uh-huh." Hikari somewhat had a guilty look in her eyes. "Th-that's one of the reasons why I hide the keys. Just so no one would see what I write in there. Even if someone were to get into this drawer and read my diary..." She lets out somewhat a troubled sigh. "Least it's better than having them find the Death Note."

In truth, Hikari always writes in her diary ever since junior high school. Her counselor there recommended that a great outlet for Hikari would be to write all of her problems down in a diary, to somewhat relieve her of her troubles then and now. It has helped...somewhat.

Ryuk has noticed in the last three weeks he's been with Hikari that sometimes before she goes to bed, she would always take her diary out and write down whatever it was she wrote. He never bothered to ask why Hikari writes in it nor has ever bothered reading it, especially with Hikari around. In fact, he never got around asking Hikari about her personal life. Then again, he's a Shinigami. They don't care about stuff like that.

**"Well, so long as you haven't wrote anything down relating to the Death Note,"** Ryuk shrugged.

"I-I haven't!" Hikari somewhat snapped, but regained her composure after a second. "I mean, I-I have thought about it a couple times, b-but I thought th-that it m-might be too risky to...to write about it in my diary."

Oh great. She's hesitating again. Why is Ryuk not surprised?** "But you said you hid the Death Note."**

"Of course I have," Hikari calmed down. She reached over to her desk where she took a pen from a cup filled with other pencils and pens. She unscrewed the tip of the pen and pulled it apart. "This right here is the second key to find it."

**"A second key?"**

Hikari nodded. "If you look real hard under the drawer, there's a small hole right there." She placed the small tube of ink attached to the head of the pen near the bottom and pushed it through the hole. Hikari used her other hand to reach into the drawer and took out her diary before the bottom had happened to pop up.

Underneath the bottom of the drawer was actually another bottom, where in the center of it was the Death Note.

**"Oh, a fake bottom,"** Ryuk realized. **"If anyone were to open the drawer, the diary would at least satisfy their curiosity. It'll be a distraction, so I doubt anyone would notice that."**

Hikari's heart felt a bit heavy. If someone where to find the keys to the drawer, it would be a good thing that no one would notice the Death Note. It's better for people to read her troubles and secrets than to find a killer notebook of death.

"I designed and made it specifically so no one would notice a thing," Hikari said, reaching for the Death Note. "I also made the fake bottom as tight in there as possible, so that way no one would try to force it out. Not even their fingernails would fit through. That's why I made only one way to open it."

**"Interesting,"** Ryuk said. Despite Hikari's shy behavior and such, she's actually pretty smart for someone like her, Ryuk will give her that. He was secretly impressed by how Hikari would come up with such simple things that would be of big help. **"I've heard of Death Notes making their way into the human world in the past and typically the biggest problem is finding a good place to hide it. But you, Hikari..." He leaned over Hikari causing her to flinch. "You might actually be the first person to give it this much thought."**

"Well uh..." Hikari simply turned away and removed the pen from the hole, lowering the fake bottom down again. While she did that, her hair covered the left side of her face again. "I-It's nothing, really. Like I said before, it's risky to carry the Death Note around with me anymore. I realized it's been risky ever since I first found it. I have to be careful what I do with it. One slip-up, and I'll be on death row in an instant."

That thought scared her, though she tried her best not to show it. Hikari wanted to make the world a safer place for innocent people to live. Even though she believes what she's doing is right, murder is still illegal. The police have noticed a bizarre pattern of deaths as of recent, but the media says that it's too soon to say if they are murders or not, so she's safe.

Hikari knows that it would only be a matter of time before the world finds out that these deaths are indeed murders, whether it takes them a month, a year, or five years to figure it all out. The police will try their best to find their suspect: Hikari Yagami.

She doesn't like the idea of police officers asking her why she did it, yelling at her that what she was doing was wrong, her father having to arrest his own flesh and blood, her family never looking at her the same way again, everyone at school laughing and shunning her for all the people she killed, being taken to her execution...

**"Hikari, you okay?"**

Ryuk saw how Hikari looked deep in thought, followed by her shoulders slowly starting to shake and her breathing begins to pick up, as if she was going into a state of shock.

**"Hikari!"** Ryuk shouted, hoping to snap her out of her little trance.

Hikari flinched again, though this stopped her shaking and for a minute she looked a bit dumbfounded, as if she didn't know what would happen. She looked over at Ryuk with a questioning look.

"W-What is it?" She asked.

Ryuk sighed.** "Oh good. For a minute there, I thought you were gonna have an episode."**

Hikari looked away with a blush on her face, somewhat embarrassed. She hates it whenever she goes into those lousy what-if thoughts of hers. It's not healthy. "S-Sorry." She muttered under her breath.

Ryuk sighed frustratingly and simply placed a hand on his face out of annoyance. He believes that the Death Note would not be in greater hands than Hikari, and she has been keeping him entertained since he first arrived on Earth, not to mention tending to his apple cravings. Though to be honest, it was kind of ridiculous that out of all the humans to have picked up the Death Note, it had to be a timid girl. A smart girl, but timid nonetheless.

There's still a lot Ryuk doesn't know about Hikari, which he personally doesn't care. And yet at the same time he wants to know so many things, like why is she timid, why do people pick on her, talk behind her back, why she has little to no friends? Hikari just keeps to herself most of the time. She'll only talk when she's being spoken to, in which case Ryuk does quite a lot because most of the time the silence between them sometimes is just really boring.

It's like every word that comes out of Hikari is like fragile glass. One slip-up and it breaks. Is that how her heart is? Well whatever the heck is going on, it's best to ignore it. Humans are of no concern for Ryuk, so why would he care if people act like Hikari has some kind of plague?

Besides, it's also best not to jump into things yet. He has been in the human world for three weeks now, so it's still too soon to make conclusions yet. Maybe there's still more to Hikari than just being shy, or maybe people tease her because they're joking around, or...

No. Three weeks is long enough to observe one's lifestyle. It's enough for Ryuk to see that he won't be shown anymore of the person Hikari is. She's a smart, but timid girl who's at the top of her class and is considered one of Japan's top-ranked student who gets bullied a lot.

Ryuk scratched his chin at that thought. Maybe that's it? Maybe the reason why people tease her is because she's just smarter than they are? That could be it, but it's still not enough to make Hikari as timid as she is now. Maybe there's more to it than that...unless it's been going on for a long time now. It's best to just observe and watch. Again, it's none of his business what humans do, that's for sure.

Then again, something tells him that it may not be as entertaining as he wants to believe.

_**End of Chapter Three...**_

* * *

><p><strong><span>AUTHOR'S NOTES:<span> **Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, 'cause there's plenty more where that came from.

I have a feeling you guys might hate me for the next chapter. Why? How would you feel if one of your long-time heroes were to go against you? Not the best feeling in the world. The reason why I made Hikari look up to L in this story is because I thought it'd be kind of interesting. It adds more twists in the story. How? You'll have to see in the next chapter.

Again, don't care much for reviews, though you can leave one if you want.


	4. Chapter 4

**Give Unto Me**

**By HonestFFWriter**

**Rated:** _M (duh)_

**Genres:** _Drama & Romance_

**Pairings:** _LXFem!Light, and others coming soon...  
><em>

**Summary:** _AU. Hikari Yagami's life changed one day when she came into the possession of the Death Note. She never imagined how greatly it would change._

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

Just reminding you guys: in this story, Hikari has always looked up to L since she was in junior high school. I thought this would be a good little twist to add to the story. Why? To pull people's heartstrings, of course. It's what I do. Without further ado, the fourth chapter, everybody!

* * *

><p><strong><em>Chapter Four...<em>**

**Two Weeks Later...**

_"Last night in the West Tokyo Penitentiary, Naoki Kurotsukayama, originally sentenced to fifteen years for armed burglary, was reported to have died of a sudden heart attack at the age of thirty-two. This has been the most recent death in a steady growing number of cases of related criminal deaths."_

In five weeks time, word had spread out all over the world that criminals, whether wanted or in captivity, are slowly being killed at an alarming rate by unexplained heart attacks. What was startling was that about 99% of the world's most dangerous criminals had been killed.

What that did for the world was that the crime rate had been dropped rapidly as of recent. Many people around the world began to feel safe out on the streets without having to worry about being attacked or jumped, and are making use of this strange new peace that is slowly evolving in the world.

But why? Why are these people getting killed by heart attacks? It seems bizarre.

People are worried that there may be a virus outbreak and that it won't be long until everyone in the world dies of these heart attacks no matter the age, but what they found weird was that only criminals are being killed. Even if it was a virus, you'd think it would spread halfway around the world by now.

Some are under the impression that this is the work of God who is passing righteous judgment on these criminals, damning them to Hell for their crimes. Many think that the police may have something to do with this, but it's too farfetched for the police to do something as massive as this.

In Japan, however, many people believe that it's something else entirely.

"This is unbelievable. Criminals are dropping like flies lately."

"It's a little scary, but at the same time, I think it's kind of cool."

"Yeah. Just make sure you don't do anything bad."

"I wouldn't be surprised if the police is behind this."

"No way! The police don't have that kind of power! Don't you know about him?"

"Hmm? About who?"

"_Kira!_ You know? Kira?"

"I wonder who's going to get killed next."

* * *

><p>Hikari was browsing through the internet in search of new criminals, with her TV on showing a crime show at the moment, when she noticed a link to a website that caught her interest. She clicked on the link and it had sent her to said-website. She couldn't help but to smile. When was the last time she was this happy?<p>

"Hey Ryuk? Mind coming over here for a minute?" Hikari calls out without taking her eyes off of her computer screen. "I think you should see this." Ryuk looked over Hikari's shoulder and saw somewhat amazed at the contents of the website. "I've noticed how there have been many websites like this one on the internet recently."

Ryuk read out loud, **"The history of Kira the Savior."** He shrugged.** "Sounds interesting. Is this about you?"**

Hikari nodded. "I think they got the name Kira from the English word 'killer'. Kind of dark, but they know that there's someone out there passing judgment on the wicked. They need to call them something." She browsed through the site to look at it more, and came across a chat room.

In the chat room, it was filled with people with different usernames who each says:

_"Kira, kill everyone."_

_"Kira, if you're reading this, thank you so much for what you're doing."_

_"Keep up the great work, Kira! I know you can do it!"_

_"Thank you for killing that rapist the other day. He deserved it after what he did to my sister!"_

_"That robber got what's coming to him! Thanks, Kira!"_

_"I'm glad you killed that lousy pop idol, Kira. Who would have thought he was in trouble with the law?"_

_"I don't have to worry at night anymore! And it's all thanks to Kira!"_

_"Kira, marry me!"_

_"Have my babies!"_

Hikari clicked the back button before Ryuk could see the last two comments with a blush on her face. **"Hey, I was reading those!"** He complained.

"Uh...b-bottom line is is that everyone in the world knows that someone is doing the world a favor by k-killing off those criminals," Hikari spoke hoping to stray away from that chat room. She calmed down a bit before she explained some more. "The media still calls it an unexplained phenomena where criminals are being killed by unexplained heart attacks, so they haven't wind on this whole 'Kira' thing yet, which is actually a good thing."

**"Why's that?"**

"Well, it won't happen in public, but say that in schools, students are asked whether criminals deserve to die. They'll want to give an answer that they know everyone will hear, so they'll say something like how it's wrong to kill people. I don't know how you Shinigami act around each other, but we humans try to maintain our appearance in public, on the inside and out." Hikari learned that the hard way, but she ignored it. She leaned back against her chair and continued.

"They don't want others to think badly of them or something along that line if they were to support me in public. They're too afraid of what people would think and do about them. That's one of the great things about the internet though." She looked back at her computer screen on the Kira website. "You can be anonymous and support whatever you desire without facing any consequences. That's how I know there's many people supporting me.

Everyone knows that there's someone responsible for all of these deaths. Innocent people are actually cheering for me within without no fear in their hearts because they have done no wrong and feel safer, while those who have done wrong are forced into hiding by an unseen enemy.

I'm still a long ways to go from making this world safer, but I think I'm making good progress, don't you think?"

Ryuk looked over Hikari's shoulder again and looked at the computer screen. He couldn't help but to chuckle. Hikari looked over to him with a questioning look on her face. "What is it?"

**"You are aware of the fact that everyone thinks Kira is a guy, right? And _you_ just so happened to be Kira?"**

"I uh..." Hikari closed off the internet on her computer which shows her desktop, with a small blush on her face again. "W-Well...I-I guess that means my secret is much safer than it is."

The sounds coming from Hikari's TV came to a quiet halt as the screen turned blue. Soon after, the screen flickered before a notice came on that says, _"NOTICE. THE SCHEDULED PROGRAM WILL BE INTERRUPTED FOR A SPECIAL BROADCAST."_

It was then replaced by a group of people who looked to be working at an office with phones ringing offscreen and workers passing papers to one another. A man was in front of the camera as he was being handed a small pile of papers.

_"We apologize for any interruption. As of now, we're bringing you a world-wide broadcast from Interpol's ICPO."_

Ryuk and Hikari turned their attentions to the TV when they heard something amiss. They watched the news and couldn't help but to be confused by this sudden broadcast that just so happened to be taking place.

**"What's this?"** Ryuk asked.

"No clue," Hikari answered. "Interpol's ICPO?" It was strange. Wasn't her father over at ICPO a couple weeks back? All she heard was that he had to attend this top-secret meeting but knows nothing else apart from that. She has a feeling that it couldn't be just a coincidence that all of this is happening within two weeks apart from each other.

**"What are they?"** Ryuk asked out of curiosity.

"They're a police organization," Hikari explained. "They oversee any activity they see as a threat to the world and do everything in their powers to help prevent it. I don't know what they're doing now, though."

_"We take you live to the ICPO."_

The screen changed to a black-haired man wearing a suit sitting at a desk with the ICPO logo on the wall behind him, with a name card on the desk in front of him that reads "Lind L. Taylor".

_"I am the head of the International Police Taskforce which includes all membered nations. I am Lind L. Taylor..."_ The man, named Lind L. Taylor, closed his eyes and looked to be hesitating for a moment before he finished. _"Otherwise known as..._L_."_

Hikari caught her breath as she felt her heart skipped a beat. "D-Did he say he's L?"

**"Uh...yeah?**" Ryuk said bluntly as he knew Hikari heard it too.

Hikari couldn't believe it. L, one of her heroes, showing himself to the public for the first time. But what strikes her odd is that she has always known L would never show his face. Whatever is going on, it must be that important for L to be desperate to reveal himself.

* * *

><p>Up at the Japanese Taskforce in the police agency, Soichiro Yagami and his crew were also watching the broadcast that was said to be shown all over the world. They had halted whatever it was they were doing and remained still as statues as their full attention was on the TV screen. Soichiro crossed his arms as he watched what's going on.<p>

"So this is how it begins." He stated.

Matsuda was a bit confused, so he turned to his chief and asked, "But sir, I don't get it. He's never actually shown his face before, right? Why would he choose to do it now?"

"It must mean L is serious about this," Soichiro answered. He turned back to the screen with a determined, yet serious look on his face. _L, we have followed your every orders. Now it's time to prove what you really said back at ICPO._

* * *

><p>L opened his eyes and continued on with the broadcast with a stern look. <span><em>"Criminals around the world are being killed one-by-one by a serial killer. I consider this to be one of the most atrocious murders in history. I will not rest until the person or persons responsible for this are brought to justice.<em>

_Kira, I will hunt you down, and I will find you."_

Ryuk turned to Hikari and said, **"He seems certain that he'll catch you."**

Hikari leaned an arm down against her desk looking a bit distraught. She always looked up to both her father and L in the last few years. In a way, she wanted to be a detective just like her father, and aims to be one of the best in the world just like L. It kind of saddens her to think that one of her heroes, the greatest detective in all the world, would try to bring her to justice.

She shook her head. "N-No. He w-won't." Ryuk noticed her stuttering. Oh great. Here it comes. Hikari lifts up the Death Note and looked down at the notebook in her hands. "They need evidence to convict me, s-so as long as they don't find the Death Note, I'll be fine."

It relieved her...somewhat. However, she could feel that small pain in her chest, feeling that all-so familiar feeling of betrayal. She always looked up to L, she was always inspired by him, she hopes to one day work alongside L and become as great as him.

_"Kira."_

Hikari snapped out of her thoughts and looked back at her television screen again when she heard L call out her given-name.

_"I got a good idea what your motivation is and I can only guess what you hope to achieve. However, what you're doing right now..."_

The next words that came out of his mouth stung Hikari right in the heart.

_"...is _evil_."_

Hikari looked as if her heart was breaking in half, looking as if someone had died right in front of her.

Did her idol...just called her _evil_?

She began to shake her head, refusing in her mind that L did not just called her that. He didn't. But she knew that it was true. It's bad enough that her idol would try and bring her to justice, but to have the nerve to call her evil is even worse.

"He...h-he thinks that I-I'm...e-evil?" Her voice sounded like it was cracking, with a hint of hurt and betrayal along with it. "B-But I...I..."

Hikari got up from her seat and simply turned away, refusing to look back at that broadcast as L continues to talk on about why it's wrong and how Kira will be brought to justice. She placed a hand on her desk for support and her other hand over her face, feeling her heart hurting within her chest.

"I...I only...I'm trying to m-make th-this world a b-better place for everyone t-to live in!" Hikari shouted, feeling the tears forming in her eyes as her long hair covers her face when she leaned her head down a bit. "H-How c-could he...he s-say that a-about me!? H-How could he!?"

The tears finally escaped from her eyes as she choked back a sob, as if she's trying desperately not to cry. Hikari has always looked up to L, but for him to call her evil...

Ryuk stood by and watched while this was going on. He knew Hikari always looked up to L, so he could only imagine the grief she's feeling to have someone she idolizes talk down upon her just like that, when all she wanted was to make the world a kind, safer place to live.

**"You're not going to let him get away with that, are you?"** He asked.

Hikari looked over at Ryuk with one eye covered by her hair with a confused look on her face. Ryuk took the hint and simply shrugged his shoulders. "**You heard what he called you. He had hurt you greatly. Don't you want to make him pay?"**

"H-How?" Hikari hiccuped, wiping away her tears with the back of her sleeve.

**"Why are you asking me? You have the tool to do it right there."**

Hikari turned around where she spotted the Death Note on her desk. She looked deep in thought for a minute, contemplating on whether or not to use the Death Note to kill L for what he said about her, but she shook her head in denial.

"I-I can't!" She cried. "I...I only w-want to use the Death Note to k-kill criminals! I...I d-don't want to use i-it on innocent p-people! I...I just c-can't!"

Hikari took a seat on her desk and turned away from Ryuk, placing a hand over her face and tried her best to stop herself before making a mess of herself with her shoulders shaking in rhythm of her hiccups.

Ryuk scratched the back of his head. It's bad enough to get a little shy sometimes around girls, but dealing with crying girls is not his forte. He lets out somewhat of a frustrating growl while trying to come up with some kind of solution.

**"So you're letting him get away with it unpunished, I take it?"** Hikari ignored him, and instead focused on trying to calm herself down. Ryuk turned his attention to the television and stared at it for a few moments, as if it had somewhat caught his interest.

**_This L guy sure has plenty of years left in his remaining lifespan._** He thought to himself. He came to this world just for entertainment, but it wouldn't hurt him to do his job once and a while. Ryuk then looked back at Hikari at her desk and asked,

**"Well then...if you're not going to do it...then you won't mind if I take care of it?"**

Hikari gasped and immediately spun her chair around to face Ryuk and asked, "What do you mean?" Her eyes widened when she saw Ryuk reach for his Death Note, and watched him take it out alongside a black-feathered pen. "Ryuk, what are you doing!?"

Ryuk made her no mind. He looked back at L and then opened up his Death Note. Hikari knew what he was going to do. He was going to kill L. He began to write his name down on his Death Note as Hikari got up from her chair and begged, "Ryuk, please don't!"

She ran and reached for Ryuk to try and stop him, but Ryuk simply became intangible in time before she could grab him, causing Hikari to look her balance and fall through him, sending her to the floor. Hikari grabbed for her bed right on time before she made impact with the ground.

She turned around and looked up at Ryuk and shouted, "Ryuk, stop! You can't!"

Hikari got up from the ground and tried to grab Ryuk again, but he went intangible again as if he knew without looking that she was going to grab him, sending her to the floor again. Hikari sat up and saw to her horror that Ryuk had stopped writing in his Death Note.

He was done, and the clock was now ticking. Hikari reached for her desk and used it to help her up from her chair. Hikari asked, "R-Ryuk, why?"

Ryuk lowered down his Death Note and pen and simply replied,** "You forget that I'm a Shinigami. Unlike you, human lives don't matter to me no matter how significant you think they may be. You killed off so many criminals, but why not kill him?"**

Hikari's shoulders began to shake. "I...I said I w-would only use the D-Death Note to kill c-criminals a-and bad people and n-nothing more...L, he...he's n-never done anything w-wrong in his life. H-He doesn't deserve it."

**"Even after he bad mouthed you, huh?"** Ryuk puts away his Death Note as he talked. **"Everyone dies eventually, even we Shinigami. Why does it matter whether he lives or dies? In fact, we should both be glad that your life isn't on the line right now."**

Hikari raised her eyebrows. "W-What do you mean?"

Before Ryuk could answer, they heard a sudden scream from the TV. They both turned their attentions to the television and saw L clutching onto his chest writhing his body in pain. He gasped for air a couple times, before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and fell flat against the desk.

Hikari placed her hands over her mouth when she gasped at the sight. She didn't see what just happened. It couldn't have happened.

The famous detective L...he...he was...

**"Well...that settles that now, doesn't it?"** Ryuk commented.

Hikari's sadness and grief was quickly replaced with anger as she turned to face Ryuk and shouted at him, "W-What did you do!? How c-could you do that!?"

**"Didn't you heard me before?"** Ryuk asked out of annoyance. **"I'm a Shinigami. It's in my nature to kill!"**

"You didn't have to k-kill him!" Hikari shouted, tears threatening to escape from her eyes. "All just because he called me e-evil!"

**"Hmm, not really. I figured since you won't kill him, I would. And wouldn't you know it? I just did."**

They both watched the TV as they saw a couple of security guards try to wake L up but with no success. They then took his body and dragged him offscreen with many shouts heard in the background.

Hikari ran a hand through her long hair. "This can't be happening. This just can't..."

**"Oh, but it did..."** Ryuk pointed out.

Okay, so it had hurt a little that the world famous detective would track Hikari down and bring her to justice, and it had hurt even more that he had in fact called her evil, but watching him die on live TV is considered worse, especially since L was one of Hikari's heroes, one of her inspirations on becoming a detective, which makes this whole situation ten times worse than need be!

Hikari fell on her chair and leaned her head down still in shock. She feels like she's going to puke.

**"So...no hard feelings, right?"**

Ooh. Wrong thing to say, buddy. Hikari leaned back up where she was about to yell at Ryuk again, they suddenly heard static coming from the TV.

Both turned their attention towards the TV where static was shown, and before they knew it, a white screen was shown on television with the letter 'L' shown in a black fancy font.

"W-What?" Hikari whispered in shocked. What's going on?

What she didn't expect to happen next was a synthesized voice being heard over the speakers on her TV, that sounds almost distorted you couldn't make out the person's voice. _**"I had to test this just in case, but I never actually thought this would happen." The voice sounded rather shocked and surprised, and maybe even a hint of disbelief. "Kira, it seems you can actually kill people without being there in person. I wouldn't have believed it if I haven't witnessed it."**_

This looked like something you would see in those Twilight Zone episodes where something unexpected had happened, where someone is controlling another's TV set who has the ability to control whatever they so wish. Hikari was still shocked by what's happening, and also a bit confused. She pushed her hair away from her face with her eyes wide open.

_**"Listen to me, Kira,"**_ the voice spoke. _**"If you indeed kill Lind L. Taylor, the man who you saw died on television, I should tell you that he was an inmate whose execution was scheduled for today. That was not me."**_

"What?" Hikari said again. Truth be told, it was actually Ryuk who killed the guy, but still.

"The police arrested him in absolute secrecy so you wouldn't have heard about him on TV or on the internet. It seems that not even you have complete access to these types of criminals."

Ryuk leaned down almost towards Hikari's level, and although it's hard to see, it looked as if he was somewhat surprised by this sudden change of events.

**"Uh...did I screwed up just now?"** He asked.

Hikari could only nod. In truth, she was somewhat relieved that the man Ryuk had killed was not L, but a criminal. However, she was still in shock about what was going on right in front of her right now. She used one of her hands to help support herself against her desk as she still had her eyes glued to her TV.

_**"But I can assure you, L is real. I do exist. Now...**_

_**Try and kill me!"**_

It was all a trick...and they just happened to fall right into it.

* * *

><p>While L was shouting for Kira to kill him, the police force looked on in surprise by what L had done and what he was currently doing. Was L wishing for a death sentence or what?<p>

"What's going on?!"

"This is going too far!"

"Are you trying to kill yourself, L!?"

* * *

><p>Even the many citizens in the Kanto Region of Japan were surprised by what's going on throughout the region. Many citizens are shown standing out on the streets looking up at one of the tall buildings with a jumbo-screen television up above the town where they see L's signature, hearing him demanding Kira to kill him if he can.<p>

They were surprised and afraid.

"What's going on!?"

"Look! It's Kira versus L!"

"On a live broadcast!"

"This is freaky!"

"Amazing!"

"Do it, Kira!"

"Someone stop this!"

"Won't somebody think of the children!?"

* * *

><p><em><strong>"What's the matter!? Can't you do it!?"<strong>_

Hikari remained in her seat. She was so swirled up in so many emotions all at once that she can't even move, nor can she even speak or blink. She felt like a statue. Finally, L stopped, as if he was waiting to be killed.

_**"Well Kira,"**_ L broke the silence. _**"It seems you can't kill me after all. So there are certain people you can't kill. You've given me a useful hint."**_ The last sentence he spoke had a hint of a playful tone to it. _**"Let me return the favor. I'll tell you something that I think you'll find interesting.**_

_**Although this was announced as a worldwide broadcast, the truth is, we're only broadcasted live in the Kanto region of Japan."**_

A small gasp escaped through Hikari's lips. It's as if things kept getting worse minute after minute. Hikari could feel as if her chest is about to burst from all of the confusion, fear, hurt, and worry. She and Ryuk continued to listen to L speaking through the broadcast.

_**"I had planned to broadcast this message around the world until we found you, but it looks like that won't be necessary. I now know where you are."**_

Hikari placed a hand over her mouth in shock. Ryuk is rubbing the back of his head. **"You have to admit, this L guy is pretty good."**

_You're not helping!_ Hikari would say if she wasn't in this situation at the moment.

_**"The police treated your first killings as unrelated incidents, but in actuality, one of your first victims was already a suspect in Shinjuku,"**_ L continues to explain. _**"Out of all the victims who have died of heart attacks, this one's crime was by far the least serious."**_

Hikari instantly remembered that time. It was almost six weeks ago when that hostage situation took place at that daycare center. Hikari didn't know that the Death Note would work until it actually happened. Wait, did L say that that crime was the least serious? What the heck!? There were hostages involved including innocent children!

_**"Furthermore,"**_ Hikari escaped from memory lane when she heard L talking again. **_"This crime was the only one to have been reported within Japan. I used that information to deduce this much. You are in Japan, and your first victim was nothing more than a guinea pig in your little experiment, which means you haven't been killing for very long._**

**_We decided to show this broadcast in Kanto first due to it's large population, and luckily, we found you. To be completely honest with you, I never expected things to go this well, and it won't be long before I sentence you to_ death_."_**

Hikari felt like she couldn't breathe. Her father always told her that L was very smart, but she never had imagined he would be this smart. L had planned this from the very beginning. He took those clues that were small and insignificant that he knew was somehow related to the case and used it to his advantage. He knew Kira would be in Japan, so that's why they're airing that broadcast there first just to prove it.

Ryuk, you bastard.

* * *

><p>"L certainly lives up to his reputation," Matsuda commented after hearing L's explanations and deductions on television. To be honest, he was kind of speechless at first when he realized that L was a lot smarter than he gave him credit for.<p>

Soichiro nodded in agreement. "Yes. He proves that Kira exists, that the deaths were indeed murders and that he's here in Japan."

* * *

><p>Ryuk looked over to Hikari, and saw that she looked as if she was about to break down at any given moment. Gee, why is he not surprised? You think he would be used to this by now in all of his five weeks here on Earth.<p>

_**"Naturally I'm very interested to know how you're able to commit these murders without being present, but I don't mind waiting a little bit longer. You can answer all of my questions when I catch you.**_

_**Let's meet again soon..**_**.Kira**_**."**_

The screen flickered for a minute, followed by nothing but static. Hikari reached for the remote and turned off the TV. She turned towards her desk and just sat there with her back facing Ryuk. She was trying to process so many things at once through her head, she really does felt like she's going to vomit.

Her idol, L, is going to hunt her down and sentence her to death. Hikari couldn't help but to feel betrayed, worried, and horrified. She felt betrayed because she always looked up to L, who was going to send her to her execution. She felt worried because with L on the case, it'll only be a matter of time before she gets caught single-handedly. She's horrified because she would be arrested and executed for trying to make the world a better place for everyone to live.

She couldn't stand the thought of L interrogating her, torturing her into revealing how and why she would kill those criminals. She couldn't stand the thought of how her family will react if they found out she is Kira. She couldn't stand the thought of how the entire world will react if L tells everyone that Hikari Yagami, one of Japan's top students and daughter of one of the top detectives in the Kanto region is a murderer, a monster...

Hikari felt something rising up in her throat, causing her to gag a bit. At first, Ryuk thought that Hikari was going to cry all over her desk. He didn't expect her to grab the trash can that was right next to her desk, leaned her head over it, and started to puke out whatever contents still remained in her stomach.

Wait, she's doing that now.

After the first time, Hikari gagged a couple times before puking some more. Ryuk watched as Hikari vomits into her trashcan. After the third time she puked, she had stopped and saw she could no longer vomit anymore than she should. She sets the trashcan down, reached for a box of tissue that was on her desk and took out a piece where she wiped her mouth, panting as if she had just run a mile without even getting up from her seat.

**"Uh...maybe you should get to bed."** Ryuk suggested.

Best idea that came out of his mouth in weeks. Hikari nodded in agreement before she got up, and staggered a couple of times before landing on her bed in a heap. She was still panting a bit, and couldn't help but to feel the tears forming in her eyes. She felt so sick, she couldn't even move her body.

Ryuk rubbed the back of his head again as he suggested, **"So uh...remind me to never do anything stupid like that ever again. Agreed?"**

Hikari gathered up the last of her strength to nod, before her brown eyes rolled into the back of her head as her eyes closed, her panting slowing down and changing into small, yet heavy breathing, and a drop of tear fell from her eye.

**"Hikari?"** Ryuk called out. He reached over and simply poked Hikari on the back, but didn't get a response. He saw that she had just passed out. Maybe it was all too much for her to take. He lets out a frustrating sigh as he shook his head.

He then wondered what's going to happen next. Is Hikari going to strike back against L? Ryuk scratched his chin at that thought. Knowing Hikari...probably not. Like she said, she's only using the Death Note to kill criminals and bad people. Then again, he could just use the Death Note to kill L, but he quickly changed his mind. It would take the fun out of his enjoyment while on his stay on Earth.

Besides, even if he does want to kill L, he doesn't know his full name and face, and he had agreed not to get involved. Maybe if Hikari wants him to, but he's not there to cause trouble. He's just there because he's bored.

Only time will tell...this should be fun.

...

_"Kira, I will hunt you down wherever you're hiding and I will eliminate you! I am justice!"_

**_End of Chapter__ Four..._**

* * *

><p><span><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Gee, wonder what's gonna happen next? Tune in next week!


	5. Chapter 5

**Give Unto Me**

**By HonestFFWriter**

**Rated:** _M (duh)_

**Genres:** _Drama & Romance_

**Pairings:** _LXFem!Light, and others coming soon...  
><em>

**Summary:** _AU. Hikari Yagami's life changed one day when she came into the possession of the Death Note. She never imagined how greatly it would change._

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:** Sorry for not updating this story last week. I hate it when I get sick!**  
><span>**

Don't expect much to happen in this chapter. You'd get the picture on what happens here. Still hope you guys enjoy.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter Five...<strong>_

**A Few Days Later...**

"Alright, let's start with the tip line reports." Soichiro suggested.

"Yes sir." Mogi agreed.

The sun had already set not too long before the meeting at the Special Investigations Headquarters had begun. Every officer gathered in a conference room, some situated at computers, others with files and clipboards in hand, with Soichiro Yagami in the front of the room while Watari sat in the back with his laptop open that shows the letter 'L'. Attached to the laptop were a set of speakers and a microphone with a small light blinking on the laptop indicating that the webcam is in use.

It has almost been a week since the investigation fully began, and already the police force have been very busy gathering whatever evidence, theories, and leads they could get their hands on that would help them in the Kira Investigation. They felt a bit determined since they're working alongside L, but at the same time a bit unease about where this investigation would lead them.

Whatever helps them bring the paycheck home.

Detective Mogi stood from his seat to start their meeting and looked down at a clipboard in his hands.

"We have received 3,029 responses in the last week about the murders via telephone and e-mail. Most of these have been concerned citizens and prank calls, but there are fourteen people who claim to know Kira or have seen him. All fourteen accounts have been followed up on and carefully documented.

However, nobody could provide any information that wasn't already publicly available. And lastly, this week there have been an additional twenty-one people who called and claimed to _be_ Kira."

The room fell into a silence for a minute before Soichiro cleared his throat to gesture Mogi to continue on with his report.

"We didn't want to rule anything out, so we followed standard procedure and created files for all twenty-one of them."

Soichiro was satisfied with the results as he nodded in agreement. "Alright. Now onto the victim reports."

"Yes sir." Another detective called out. Mogi returned to his seat as another detective got up from his own and looked down at a file he has in his hands. "Upon further investigation, we have confirmed that the information of the majority of the heart attack victims was in fact publicly available in Japan immediately prior to their deaths."

He narrowed his eyes behind him, where Watari was sitting at with L on the other end of the computer. He had somewhat of a frustrating, yet annoyed expression on his face before he continued on to his report.

"Also, concerning L's request that we investigate the time of death for each victim...we found that all of them occurred between the hours of 4:00 PM and 12:00 AM on weekdays local time with 68% of them occurring between the hours of 8:00 PM and 12:00 AM. Weekends and holidays appear to be an exception to this rule as the times of death vary more wildly during the week."

"_**That information is extremely relevant for us." **_L spoke up through the speakers._** "It suggests that given the times of death...**_

_**Our suspect could very much be a student."**_

Soichiro shot his head up towards Watari's location in the back of the room as soon as he heard this. He and the other detectives listened on as L continues his explanation, _**"Based on the fact that Kira is only killing criminals, I think it's safe to assume that he's driven by a very unrealistic notion of justice. It's highly possible he may even aspire to be a god-like figure.**_

_**We're dealing with an individual who has a childish concept of right and wrong."**_

Many of the detectives whisper to one another about this possibility. Especially since Kira has many fans, it could be the case that Kira could be posing like a god who is killing off the wicked of the world.

Everyone was silent when L spoke up again.

"_**Of course, this is just a mere speculation at this point, but still, I recommend that you reexamine any assumptions you made as to whether or not our suspect could be a student. You should consider any possibility. I believe that is the shortest and quickest route to find and arresting Kira.**_

_**Please. Continue your report."**_

At that mere mention of Kira being a student, Soichiro instantly thought of his daughters. Even though they're still early in the investigation, it's still too soon to be suspecting anyone, let alone his own flesh and blood. Besides, Sayu and Hikari would never do something like this. Sayu is always upbeat and outgoing, and Hikari wouldn't even kill a spider.

Soichiro shook his head a little in hopes of perishing the thought. Why did he suddenly thought that one of his girls is Kira? Again, it's too soon in the investigation to pinpoint suspects. He knows deep in his heart and mind that no one in his family would ever have the courage to kill someone, let alone thousands of criminals.

Also, their suspect is a guy. Of course there have been women in the past with murderous tendencies, as well as some today, but there's no way a girl would have the heart to kill this many people in such amount of time given.

Everyone just assumes Kira's a guy, and not once have they questioned Kira's gender, so basically everyone's just going with it.

"Right. Very well." Soichiro spoke. "Is there anything else anyone wants to add?"

In the back right corner of the room, Matsuda raised his hand and responded, "Uh, yes sir."

"What is it, Matsuda?" Soichiro asked.

Matsuda rose from his seat and looked deep in thought for a minute to think of what to say. He then spoke, "Well...I'm not saying this to support Kira or to condone the murders, but in the last few weeks, but most recently in the last few days around the world, mostly in Japan, we observed a dramatic decrease in the number of violent crimes committed."

The room was once again filled with awkward silence, some of the detectives simply coughing and some groan out of annoyance. Soichiro clears his throat before he responded, "Well uh...I suppose it makes sense. We suspected something like that would happen. Anything else?"

"Oh...no," Matsuda said as he returned to his seat.

Soichiro leaned back against his chair as he announced to everyone, "Well that sums up our report for today." He turned his attention to the back of the room. "L?"

"_**Thank you everyone," **_L said through the computer. _**"We are one step closer to finding Kira. Before I go, I'm afraid I have one additional request to make." **_Everyone listened carefully at what he was about to say.

"_**This is directed to the teams investigating the victims, TV news, and internet. I would like you to go back and take a closer look at the exact way in which the victims' names were made public. Be as thorough as possible."**_

_**...**_

In a dark room, with the only light source coming from a computer screen, a young man with shaggy black hair sat unusually in the shadows at the front of the screen with the footage of the detectives shown right in front of him. His face, however, wasn't shown.

"In particular, I want to know if photos of the victims were made available to the public in Japan...I'll leave it to you."

...

Soichiro stretched his arms out while letting out a loud yawn. He had just put on his coat with his hat in hand as he was about to head home for the night. He stopped when he heard someone call out to him.

"Chief!" He turned his head and saw Matsuda walking by with two cups of coffee in his hands. "You look like you could use one of these. Sleeping much?" Matsuda handed Soichiro a cup in which he kindly accepted.

"Ah, thank you," Soichiro said, placing the cup towards his lips. "That'll do the trick. I feel these late nights are starting to take a toll."

He took a sip, and Matsuda looks like he was about to take a drink of his own coffee, but a thought came to mind and a sadden look came to his face as he lowers his cup.

"About what I said earlier in our meeting," he spoke. "Well, now that I think about it, I'm sure everyone already knew that. I wanted to apologize."

"What on earth are you talking about?" Soichiro asked with a puzzled expression. "Nobody says that it's easy to speak the truth, but it has to be done. Especially if it's something that isn't easy to say."

Matsuda now looks a bit comfortable with what his chief had said. With the way he said that, it does make sense. Besides, if no one else was going to speak up for that detail, it may as well be him anyhow.

"Having said that..." Soichiro continues to say, but this time with a smile. "If you had gone on to commend Kira for doing such a great job of reducing violent crime, then yes. I might have had a little problem with that."

"What!? N-No! Of course not! That would never happen!"

Soichiro laughed. "Relax! I'm just kidding!"

* * *

><p>Ryuk laid on Hikari's bed, trying his best to ignore that lingering scent of cheap perfume, with his hand on the side of his head for support, while he watches Hikari help her little sister Sayu with her homework.<p>

"I knew I could count on you, Hikari," Sayu said cheerfully.

Hikari gave her a small smile and a nod. "So, want to try a couple on your own now?"

Sayu looked a bit nervous. "Uh...y-yeah. Of course."

Both girls paused when they heard the doorbell ring throughout the house. They both turned their attention towards Hikari's bedroom door, with Sayu still unaware of Ryuk's presence.

"Hey! Sounds like Dad's home!" Sayu exclaimed, somewhat relieved for some reason. She got up from her seat. "He's home really early today!"

She ran towards the door while Hikari watched. "W-What? B-But Sayu! What about your homework!?" She called out.

Sayu opened the door and jolted out of her sister's room. She shouted back, "I'll do it after dinner! I swear!"

"At least do the last problem!"

It was in vain as Sayu was already making her way down the stairs. Sayu must be taking advantage of this so she can get out of doing homework. Hikari could never ask for a better sister, but sometimes younger siblings can be a pain. Hikari got up on her feet and stood by the edge of her bed as Ryuk sat up with his legs crossed.

"**Helping your sister with her homework. You sure are relaxed." **He stated.

Hikari nodded. "At first, I wasn't so sure. But...I think it'll be okay."

"**Why do you think that?" **Ryuk asked.

Hikari walked towards her door as she said, "I'll tell you about it later." She left her room and headed down the stairs where she found her father taking off his jacket in the foyer. Since her father is barely at home, it's a little awkward for Hikari to talk to him as comfortably as she used to.

"Uh...h-hi Dad." She greeted as she watched Soichiro take his shoes off. "Will you...be joining us for dinner?"

"Sure, why not?" her father replied. "It's been a long day."

...

Ryuk watched from behind Hikari and Sayu as the Yagami family was enjoying dinner. Sayu was in the middle of talking about her history project at school to the family.

"...However, instead of using that ingredient, we decided to use hot sauce to see what would happen. Our volcano still erupted, but the teachers had to evacuate the entire school because it actually erupted this really hot stuff that really isn't lava, but it sure was hot and gooey as one! It was still so awesome though!"

Soichiro and Sachiko laughed at their youngest daughter's story as Hikari silently listened while eating her rice. She feels a bit uncomfortable seeing as how she's the only one in the entire room to actually see a Shinigami, but tries her best not to show any discomfort.

As soon as his laughter dies down, Soichiro turned to Hikari and asked, "So Hikari, how're your studies going?"

"Hmm?" Hikari looked up to her dad for a moment and then focused on her dinner. "They're...alright."

"Alright?" Sayu repeated in disbelief. "You're at the top of your class! My big sister's a genius!"

Sachiko nodded in agreement. "That's right. We're all proud of you, Hikari."

Hikari smiled a little. "Th-Thanks. But it's not a big deal. Really."

"What did you say?" Sayu asked still in a disbelieving tone. "Of course it's a big deal! You're so smart, I bet you can even rival L's smartness!"

Hikari's eyes widened a bit and her heart skipped a beat at the mention of L's name, but she immediately calmed down and took a drink of her water acting as if nothing had happened. She sets down her cup as she looked at her father, whom she noticed looked exhausted than usual.

"A-Are you alright, Dad?" Hikari asked in a worried tone. "You look a bit tired tonight."

Soichiro nodded before he gulped down some food. "I'm fine. I'm not entitled to talk about it yet, but this new case I'm working on has been keeping me pretty busy."

Ryuk smirked at that information. Maybe this was why Hikari seems a bit confident?

_**How interesting...**_

...

"**I've almost forgotten that your daddy dearest is a detective." **Ryuk took a bite out of his apple before he asked, **"I take it that's why you seem so confident?"**

Hikari nodded as she was going through many files on her computer and typing away on her keyboard. "S-Somewhat. It's a little wrong, but I can hack into my dad's files and see what's up. Since we're on the home network, I can copy his files without leaving a trace."

A box popped up on her computer screen asking for a password. Hikari took a moment to remember what it was and then started typing. After she was done, she hit the 'Enter' key on her keyboard. She waited for a few moments before another file opened up, containing even more files.

After she was done transferring the files over to her own computer, she closed off the network from her computer just in case. Hikari opened the files she had copied and looked them over. She reached for her coffee and took a sip as her eyes scanned the computer screen.

A feel of worry swept over her heart. Just she thought. Her father is actually in charge of the Kira Investigation, and there's no doubt that he's working alongside L. Ryuk could detect worry from her eyes as he finished his apple, and could tell immediately that something was wrong.

"**Correct me if I'm wrong, but judging by the look on your face, I say your father is in charge of the Kira Investigation."**

Hikari sets her mug down. "Y-Yeah." She said quietly with a hint of worry in her voice. She tried her best to push those thoughts of her father arresting her and shunning her out of her mind as she said, "It says here that the police is already suspecting a student, ranged between high school and university."

Ryuk chuckled in amusement. **"I guess that means you're in big trouble. It won't be long before the police could find you."**

Hikari rubbed her eyes tiredly as she tried to come up with a solution on how to resolve this issue. Wait, what if she could somehow use the Death Note in a way where she could kill people during the hours when she's in school? Would it actually work?

Well, just in case, Hikari went through the same procedure as she always does: finds her keys in an encyclopedia set, unlocks and opens the drawer, took out a piece of a pen from the cup she keeps on her desk, and used it to pry open the fake bottom. She takes out the Death Note from it's hiding spot and opened it to the first page where the rules are written.

She read out loud, "If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen. If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack. After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds."

"**Just what are you getting at here?" **Ryuk asked out of curiosity.

Hikari turned her head towards Ryuk's direction and asked, "Ryuk, if I write down heart attack as the cause of death, is it possible to write down the time of death as well?"

"**Of course," **Ryuk answered. **"You can either write down the time of death afterwards or simply write down the age of when you want them to die, but only after writing down the cause of death. Otherwise, it wouldn't work, and they'd simply die of a heart attack."  
><strong>

Hikari looked at her Death Note again, and turned the pages where the once empty-notebook was beginning to fill with many names. "So it only works when I write down the cause of death? Hmm." An idea suddenly hatched in her mind. "It's worth a shot."

**One Week Later...**

"WHAT!?" Soichiro jumped out of his seat and slammed his hands against the desk with a look of confusion and anger written all over him, the same way a kid would react if they were told that their pet dog had died. He looked at the two agents in front of him who had given him news in which he never thought he'd expect to hear on a Friday morning.

"24 deaths had occurred yesterday!? Is all of this confirmed!?"

One of the agents nodded his head. "Yes sir."

Soichiro looked away in disbelief and ran a hand through his hair. "I don't believe it. He's _now_ killing one off every hour on the hour now!"

It was all strange. Criminals' deaths occurred as they had freely during the weekend, and when Monday came, they had expected the same weekly pattern to occur. They thought differently.

On Monday, eleven criminals had died which had begun early-noon from two to midnight. On Tuesday, the deaths began at eleven in the late-morning, fourteen criminals had died. On Wednesday, the deaths began at eight, with seventeen criminals. And the day before on Thursday, twenty-four criminals had died.

One criminal died every hour of the given time, and who knows how many would die today.

"Consider that this sudden change has been going on for the last four days, it does punch some holes into the theory that Kira's a student." A detective spoke up.

"Maybe not." Another said. "Anyone can easily skip classes in the week and miss a day or two of school."

L, through his computer in the back of the room with Watari, listened in on this sudden change that had occurred during the week. The room fell into silence when L spoke up.

"_**You're missing the point."**_

Everyone turned their attention towards the back of the room as L explains. _**"It does appear less likely now that Kira is a student, but that's not the message he's sending by doing this. Ask yourselves: why do the number of deaths escalate throughout the week? Why one every hour as of yesterday? And why are all of these criminals convicts in prison when they should've been discovered immediately? Why not other criminals like before?**_

**_I believe Kira is telling us that not only can he kill from a distance, but he can also _determine_ the time of death."_**

Matsuda fought to urge to yell "WHAT!?" to the entire squad in the room. His reaction was just as the same as everyone else's. It was as if they were hunting down the Grim Reaper himself. Kira can choose the time of death of his victims. That proof alone had sent chills throughout each of the agents' spines.

What who or what are they dealing with here? Is Kira even human? Or are they really are trying to find the Grim Reaper?

...

The young man turned his microphone away as he stared into his computer screen where many awestruck detectives were shown to look his way at the sudden realization of Kira's powers. The man looked to be deep in thought as he placed his thumb against his lips.

"But something's not right." He said silently to himself. "As soon as we had suspected that Kira _might_ be a student, the pacing of the killings changed as if to contradict that theory. Coincidence? No. _Too_ convenient."

He looked up towards the ceiling in thought. What if...

"This could only mean that Kira has access to police information...It's obvious now. This is a direct challenge for me."

...

"Hopefully that'll keep them off track."

Hikari was on her way home from school with Ryuk flying beside her. She adjusted her red scarf around her neck as she felt a cold wind brush by her with her hair flowing along with it.

"I already prepared myself for the weekends too," Hikari continued on while Ryuk listened. "They'll think Kira's not a student as they had originally thought. I think that'll throw them off, so I think I'm safe...for now. I won't know for sure until time will tell."

_Still, there's a small chance where L will find out that Kira has connections to the police. I should still be careful._

...

"So Kira has found a way to obtain information from the Task Force Headquarters. This is one fact that cannot be ignored."

The man stood up from his seating place and looked over at his computer on the floor as if he was expecting it to explode right in front of him at any given moment now.

"There's still something I don't quite get. Given the fact that the number of deaths expanded over the last few days, it's as if to throw us off at the fact that Kira is a student." Though his face wasn't shown, one can easily tell he looked to be a bit tensed. "It's as if to say that Kira wasn't a student.

If Kira could determine the time of death of his victims, he could've just as easily killed one off at every hour in the beginning of the week, but he didn't. Why?" A small gasped escaped at a sudden realization. "Maybe it's because Kira doesn't want to be caught. As if he's scared that the police will find him.

If that's so, then why? What is he planning?"

...

"**There's one thing I don't quite get though,"** Ryuk spoke. **"Wouldn't that indicate to them that you have access to police information?"**

"Uh-huh," Hikari muttered into her scarf. "That's why I set the Death Note up so that the number of deaths would increase over the week during the hours I would be busy at school. If I happen to do so immediately, they suspect me more than they had when they found out Kira is a student. And starting next week, there'll always be a criminal that dies every hour."

"**Impressive," **Ryuk said rather surprised. **"But don't forget that the police will still be hunting for Kira. Aren't you going to do something about that?"**

Hikari shook her head. "I can't just kill off the police. Remember what I said before, Ryuk."

Ryuk crossed his arms and sighed in annoyance. **"That you'll only use the Death Note on criminals and bad people and yada yada." **He stated.

"Exactly," Hikari said with a nod. "Besides, this investigation will be over soon before you know it."

Confusion struck Ryuk right in the chest. **"What makes you say that?"**

"Ryuk, be honest with me, would you trust someone whose name and face you don't know?"

"**Probably not."**

"My point exactly. The police is just going to keep investigating for a long while, and it won't be long before they start to resent L. They won't have leads to go on, no evidence to support their case. It would be to the point where they would go against L because he was supposed to be the greatest detective in the world who never lost a case before, and that their case would be a cold one.

The police will be against L while L will be against them, leaving him to solve this case all on his own without anyone to help him. This is one case he won't solve.

While all of this happens, Kira will just keep on killing."

_**End of Chapter Five...**_

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>...Yeah. Again, not much has happened here, but this'll give you some insight on what's to come. And I'm pretty sure everyone knows what's gonna happen next in the next few chapters.

I thought this would be an interesting twist to add, that Hikari would try her best to avoid being suspected by the police. Wonder how far that'll go? Who knows? Just gonna have to wait and see. Still hoped you guys enjoyed the chapter.


	6. Chapter 6

**Give Unto Me**

**By HonestFFWriter**

**Rated:** _M (duh)_

**Genres:** _Drama & Romance_

**Pairings:** _LXFem!Light, and others coming soon...  
><em>

**Summary:** _AU. Hikari Yagami's life changed one day when she came into the possession of the Death Note. She never imagined how greatly it would change._

**AUTHOR'S NOTES:**Just because I'm updating less doesn't mean I'm losing interest in writing the story. I've just been really sick these last couple weeks. Still hope you enjoy this chapter nonetheless, and I hope you can forgive me for the delay.

Remember when I mentioned that you would get to learn more of why Hikari is who she is in this story? Again, it's a lesson well learned, but it'll have a huge impact for much later on in the story. Again, I still hope you all enjoy the story.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter Six<strong>_

"What's this about!?"

It wasn't until that afternoon on that same day that Chief Soichiro Yagami had received shocking news. He didn't expect it to be from his own officers, which three had laid down three letters of resignation right in front of him at his desk.

"With all due respect Chief, we're resigning," one said while two others had their heads bowed. "We ask that you take us off this case, otherwise you can have our badges here and now."

The rest of the officers in the squad room stopped whatever work they were doing and watched the commotion go on in front of the room. Even they didn't expect something like this. All they could do is sit, or stand, and couldn't help but to hear what was going on.

"Why? You're good cops!" Soichiro asked.

"Isn't it clear?" One of the other officers spoke. "Because we value our lives, sir."

Even Watari and L, through his computer, listened in on the commotion.

"If what L says is true, Kira has some ESP-like power that can let him kill people indirectly from anywhere. Well, if I were Kira sir, I would probably try and kill those who try and catch me."

"Let's face it. He knows he'll be sentenced to death if he's caught."

"We all sat here and watched when L decided to pull media stunt and challenged Kira to kill him. While it was impressive at the time, but then again L never has to show his face or his name for that matter.

I'm sure you recall L's last request from late last week? He asked that we'd take a closer look at how these victims' identities were made public, and specifically determine if the victims' faces and names were available to the public prior to their deaths." He slammed his hands down on the desk in front of Soichiro. "Well it turns out that he's right! Every _single_ one of those victims' names and photos were made public on TV in Japan and then they died!

Unlike _someone_ we know..." He made a gesture towards Watari and L's direction. "We're out there investigating this case while wearing Police I.D.s with our names and photos on them! Anyone with a computer can find out who we are! We don't hide our faces! We're out in the open!"

All L could do was just listen from the other side of the computer that was in Watari's possession. One could only guess what L must be thinking of at this moment.

"Sir," One of the other officers spoke up. "The truth is we could be killed by Kira at any time."

"For these reasons," the officer in the middle finishes. "We refuse to continue working on this case. Excuse us, chief."

The three bowed and then turned their direction towards the door. The rest of the detectives and officers could only watch as they leave the room. Soichiro got up from his seat and called out, "Hey! Stop! All of you! Hold it right there!"

It was all in vain. He watched as the three left the squad room, and it was shown that they would not be returning anytime soon.

...

The young man watched what had happened, and all he did was let out a small, yet heavy sigh.

* * *

><p><strong>Three Days Later...<strong>

Hikari tried her best to pay attention to her cram school teacher while she felt small paper balls thrown right behind her. Ayumi, Kimiko, and Miyako, as well as a couple other guys, were sitting right behind her with smug looks and small snickering escaping from their mouths at each successful hit they take.

Ryuk sat on the empty spot next to Hikari with the chair supporting his feet. He could only watch as these kids torment Hikari. He may be a Shinigami, but this was just ridiculous. Almost two months and still these guys shows no sign of stopping their constant teasing on Hikari anytime soon. What does everyone have against Hikari? She never had done anything to them...as far as he's aware of.

Hikari sighed as she begins to write down notes while these guys still threw small paper balls at her. Ryuk still sees that Hikari was mentally in pain just by looking at her face. She always makes that face whenever something either doesn't go her way, when she's very nervous, or when she's being picked on. He was used to seeing this, but he's still not used to seeing Hikari being picked on, for that mattered.

He won't ever admit it, but Ryuk had grown somewhat attached to Hikari. He still doesn't care about her, but he doesn't like to watch her getting picked on to say the least. She has been pretty good keeping him entertained, as well as tending to his apple-cravings, and at one point a few weeks back, Hikari even told him that she was glad to have someone around to talk to.

Ever since he first came to the human world, not once did he see Hikari with other people besides her family. She never exactly told him why, nor has she opened up to him about why people see her differently and why some treat her like she's not important. In fact, Ryuk still doesn't know a thing about Hikari's past. She's not one to talk about her problems or her memories. Either she doesn't trust him enough, or she's still a bit scared at the fact that he's a Shinigami, or even that she doesn't want to talk about it.

Why would a smart and gifted girl shun herself from everyone else? Why is she shy? Why do people seem to dislike her so?

"Guys, guys, check this out."

Ryuk turned and saw that one of the guys that was sitting next to Kimiko took out a moist chewed-up wad of gum from his mouth and looked to be steadying and aiming it throw it right in Hikari's direction.

He does not like where this would be going. Ryuk simply got up from his seat on the table and down on the floor where he phased through another table where it was occupied by Ayumi, Kimiko, Miyako and the guys and simply walked right behind them.

He chuckled. This is going to be fun.

Ryuk bent down as much as he could, and swung his leg right at the legs of the five chairs. Before the guy could throw the gum, all five of them shrieked in surprised as their chairs suddenly shook and toppled on the floor, taking them along with it.

Everyone in the classroom turned around and saw what had happened, even Hikari. Most of the class immediately erupted with laughter at these five's predicament. Ryuk got up and even laughed himself. Ayumi and the others struggled to get up and used the tables for support, and they all wondered out loud what had happened.

Only Hikari knows how it happened, and she couldn't help but to chuckle a bit herself. She reminds herself to thank Ryuk and reward him with an apple later for this.

Ryuk stopped laughing. He doesn't know why, but he felt as if something was up. He looked around the classroom, as most of the students started to calm down by order of the teacher. His gaze then stopped at the windows at the back of the classroom. He walked towards the middle of the aisle and started to make his way towards the back.

Hikari watched what Ryuk was doing, and instantly knew that there was something wrong. This wasn't like Ryuk to simply do something without announcing it first.

Ryuk stopped towards the window and simply looked out at the city in the night. He looked down towards the corner of a street where a streetlight was. It was quite convenient for a streetlight to be there...

Because he could see a shadow emerge from around the corner of that block.

**Meanwhile...**

"_We brought the FBI agents to Japan over the weekend." _Watari announced. _"They're fully operational, and as requested, are currently gathering intell on the police."_

The young man looked through a stack of paper he was holding in his hands as Watari announced this, and then after a moment looked back at Watari on the screen of his computer.

"And this is the complete list I requested?" He asked.

"_Yes."_

The man looked down at the stack and looked through them again.

"There are exactly one-hundred-forty-one officers in the task force with classified information regarding the investigation. Out of them all, only fifty-four of them have known family members who are students ranging between high school and university. Kira tried to throw us off to make us think he's not a student, but his earlier killings say otherwise.

I am certain that somewhere on this list of these police officers and the people closest to them..." He eyed on the first sheet of paper that was on top of the stack. He took this sheet and dropped the rest on the floor in front of him. "We will _find _our suspect."

He looked down on the sheet that had an image of Chief Soichiro Yagami on the top with his information, as well as three others on the sheet. His eyes scanned it over until two names caught his eye. There was no way the Chief or his wife could be Kira, so he ruled them out immediately.

The last two photos and information on the list was that of Hikari's and Sayu's, both of them labeled as students.

**Sayu Yagami (14)**

**Occupation: Junior High School Student**

**Notes: Youngest of the Yagami family, bright and outgoing, and hates homework.**

Seriously. Who doesn't hate homework?

**Hikari Yagami (17)**

**Occupation: High School Student**

**Notes: Eldest child of the Yagami family, keeps to herself, and one of the top-ranked students in Japan.**

It's unlikely that these girls could be Kira, but based on Hikari Yagami's occupation, he could never be too careful and should consider every possibility there is.

* * *

><p>Hikari adjusted her scarf as she stood outside and felt the cool-crisp air nipping at her skin. She wrapped her arms around herself as a way to warm herself up a bit and looked up in the sky where she sees the full moon casting down on the Earth. She was about to head out to home when she heard that oh-so-familiar voice.<p>

"Hey Yagami!"

Hikari turned around and saw Ayumi, Kimiko, and Miyako, along with the guys who were sitting with them before, exiting the building with menacing looks on their faces. Hikari felt a feel of fear swell up in her heart for what they would do.

Ayumi poked Hikari in the chest and exclaimed, "I don't know how you did it, but you will pay for what you did! We became the laughing stock of the class because of you!"

"B-But I d-didn't do it," Hikari stuttered. "I-I swear." She was stuttering because not only was she a bit cold, but also because of her timidness.

"You were the only one near us at the time it happened! It's so obvious!" Miyako shouted. "I always knew you were weird. Who would've thought you were _that_ much of a freak!?"

"B-But I..."

"Save it!" Ayumi shouted and placed a hand in front of Hikari's face. "When I said we would put you in your place, we meant it! You better watch yourself, Yagami! Don't want a repeat of how we put you in your place many times before!"

All Hikari wanted was to forget about those horrible years in junior high school and put it behind her, but she couldn't help but to instantly remember when Ayumi brought that up.

"We need to get going," Kimiko spoke. "So uh, if you would be so kind as to get out of our merry little...oh, I don't know. WAY!?" She then shoved Hikari to the side and the five watched as she fell on the hard cold concrete ground of the sidewalk.

All they did was laughed as they begin to walk off. Hikari watched them go, before she begins to struggle to get up with pain stinging through her body paralyzing her. When they subsided, she mustered up whatever strength she can and got up from the ground.

She saw that both of her knees were red and shows signs of bleeding. Hikari feels her eyes begin to form the tears at both the physical and mental pain she had to endure, but she took a deep breath of the cool night air and then set off home, unaware that someone in the alleyway close to the cram school saw what had occurred.

Hikari looked around as she begin to walk, wondering where the heck Ryuk had wandered off too. Sometimes Ryuk would take off to someplace, but Hikari doesn't mind because she always knew he would come back.

It wasn't until later on when she was walking down the familiar streets of her neighborhood that Ryuk had come back. Hikari could hear his black-feathered wings flapping in the distance, and heard him flying right behind her.

"**Hey there, Hikari." **He greeted.

Hikari nodded. She was still a bit fazed by what happened before, and was afraid that if she talks to Ryuk right now, she may break. Ryuk notices the silent treatment when Hikari didn't say anything despite with no people around.

"**You alright, Hikari?" **Ryuk asked. **"I thought you'd at least be a bit happy after that little show I put on earlier."**

That was when he noticed something dripping down Hikari's legs. Ryuk averted his eyes towards Hikari's legs and saw that she was bleeding on both of her knees, but only with a couple droplets of blood dripping down on both legs.

"**What happened?" **Ryuk asked again.

Hikari whispered, "They didn't get the hint from that little stunt you pulled."

"**Aww geez," **Ryuk groaned rubbing his hand over his face. **"What have you ever done to anyone to make people have something against you?"**

Hikari leans her head down with her hair over her face as memories surfaced in her mind, memories that she would rather forget. She shook her head and muttered into her scarf, "It's best not to know."

"**Why's that?" **Ryuk asked. It was a good thing Shinigami have very good hearing, otherwise he'd have no idea what Hikari just said.

"It's best that way," she whispered. Hikari stopped at the corner of a street and looked both ways. She then continued on down the road with Ryuk following pursuit. He knows that it's pointless to keep asking, 'cause no matter how many times he would ask, there's no way Hikari to get him to talk.

That was when an idea hatched in his mind. It's a long shot, but Hikari doesn't seem to know about a strange shadow lurking right behind them, which was getting on Ryuk's nerves at that, but it could provide Hikari some juicy information in return for her telling at least one of her little secrets.

"**Well then, how about a little game?" **Ryuk proposed.

"What kind of game?" Hikari whispered. She shivered a bit when a cold breeze flew by.

"**I have some information that I think you may find interesting," **Ryuk explained. **"However, in return, I want you to reveal to me one of those little secrets you keep hiding."**

Hikari raised her eyebrows. "What kind of information?" She asked.

"**I'm not saying unless you agree to play. Besides, it's been almost two months since I first came to the human world and I have yet to understand what's going on, so I think I do deserve some answers."**

As if Ryuk would care what had happened to her before, but since Hikari's the only one who could see him, there's no way for Ryuk to go around telling anyone else about her secrets. She does kind of owe him, after all.

"Fine, but just one secret," Hikari whispered.

Ryuk chuckled in success. **"Excellent. I'll go first, then it'll be your turn.**

**First off, I have nothing against you. I actually think that the Death Note couldn't have been picked up by a better person. The only reason I'm here is only until the Death Note is either finished or passed on to another person or I see you die. Whichever comes first. But make no mistake Hikari, I'm not on your side nor am I on L's side."**

"Is that the information?" Hikari asked with her lips feeling the fabric of her red scarf.

"**I haven't given it to you yet," **Ryuk continues on. **"Just making sure you get the gist of things before I give it to you. You'll never hear from me what I think you're doing is right or wrong. Like I said when we first met, I'm merely a spectator, but since I'm technically your roommate, I may have some things to say now and then."**

"Why are you telling me this now?" Hikari asked again silently.

"**I'm just saying I'm not on your side or Kira's if you prefer. The only reason I'm going to tell you this information is because personally it's starting to get on my nerves."**

"What is it?" Hikari asked in a worried tone.

Ryuk picked that up. With the way she asked that, it sounded as if Hikari sounded somewhat concerned about the Shinigami. No way. Ryuk knows that Hikari still fears him a little due to his status, even though she doesn't know it most of the time. Still, least it's better for her to fear him than to have him listen to her stuttering every now and then.

Ryuk flew up a bit and leaned towards Hikari to the point where his lips were right by her ear.

"**You're being followed by another human," **he whispered rather harshly with a hint of teasing. **"He's watching you right now."**

Hikari stopped and turned around with a surprised look on her face. She could've sworn she saw something move in the shadows, but the movement had suddenly stopped. She looked around a bit. Ryuk mentions that it was a 'he' so it wasn't Ayumi or her lousy friends. Still, she decided to play along a bit.

"V-Very funny, Ayumi! N-Now knock it off!" Hikari shouted. "Th-This isn't funny! I-It's not!"

Hikari turned around and immediately sped-walk down the street. She could hear the sounds of distant footsteps not too far from her. It was feint, but she could definitely hear someone following her, alright. Ryuk followed along as he flew next to her.

"**Good acting there," **Ryuk commented. **"I don't have to worry about being seen with you because no one else can see and hear me, but since I'm following you all the time, it feels like I'm being watched! It's really annoying!"**

_Welcome to my world,_ Hikari said in her head.

"**You'll have your turn when we get back to your house. The last thing we want is for people to think you're crazy."**

_Too late._ Hikari thought again.

* * *

><p>Hikari sets her backpack on the floor and unwrapped her scarf from around her neck and threw it on the floor next to her backpack. She walked over to her window and pushed the curtain back a bit where she could see the corner of the street from across her house.<p>

_If it's not Ayumi or her friends, then who would be following me? Does this mean L is already starting to suspect the police? If L would be investigating the police, he would need whatever manpower he could get his hands on. No matter how many he has working on this case, I still don't see how they would think that I'm Kira._

Ryuk was right. Hikari could see a silhouette at the end of the street. She immediately closed the blind and leaned her back against the wall in thought, with her eyes focused on the curtains as if they were going to swallow her whole any second now.

_I shouldn't look anything more than just an innocent high school senior. Anyone would slip under these circumstance, but it won't be that easy with me. I just need to play innocent long enough for the stalker to not suspect me._

"**Hikari, aren't you going to do something about your knees?"**

Hikari looked back at Ryuk and then looked down at her legs. She knew she forgot something! She was so occupied with that stalker that she had neglected the cuts on her knees. She walked over to her bed and sat down near the edge. She reached for under her bed and took out a first-aid kit that she keeps under there just in case.

She had told her mother earlier when she got home that she had accidentally lost her footing and fell at a curb on her way home, and so Sachiko believed her. Hikari opened the first-aid kit and reached for a couple of rubbing-alcohol pads when she felt some heavy weight on her bed next to her.

"**You know, you still haven't told me one of your little secrets," **Hikari heard Ryuk say next to her.

Hikari wiped up the blood before tending to her knees. She cringed in pain when she felt a hot stinging sensation on her knees that escalated through her body. She breathed in and out of her nose as she cleaned up her wounds as much as she could.

"**Hikari, did you hear me?"**

"O-Of course I heard you," Hikari said. "Give me another minute."

As soon as she was done, Hikari placed the bandages on each of her knees while taking deep breaths. Looks like she's wearing leggings tomorrow.

"So...what is it you want to know?" Hikari asked, still looking down on her tended knees. "You said it's just one thing, right?"

"**Of course. Just answer me this question: what have you ever done to make people have something against you? You didn't do anything **_**bad**_**, did you?"**

Hikari let out a sigh as she placed her fingers on the brink of her nose between her eyes. Where does she even begin?

"Well, I uh..." Hikari brushed her long hair from the left side of her face and tucked it behind her ear as she looked down on the floor. "W-Well...I've always been smart and gifted, especially when I was a young girl. I have always been a straight-A student since preschool, and I always seemed to be good at everything I do. I mostly go along with it. I never meant to be that great with everything, and yet I do anyways. It wasn't long until I made quite a name for myself.

B-But..." She lets another sigh escape her lips, as she felt the tears forming in her eyes. "W-When you've been like that for so long, everyone else just assumes that you're too good for them. I've always been favored by teachers for as long as I can remember because of my good grades, I've always bragged how I'm good at everything I do back when I was in elementary school, and how I've always said that I'm going to be the next best detective right next to my dad, and possibly even L.

What I didn't know was how that made me a target."

"**A target?" **Ryuk repeated in confusion. **"A target for what?"**

"Bullying," Hikari replied as she placed her hands on her lap. "It wasn't that bad at first. I was told that kids just picked on me because they were just jealous. B-But it did get bad during my last year in elementary school. I've lost people who I th-thought were my friends because they thought a smart, talented girl like me don't need people like them, that they assumed I'm just t-too perfect for them."

Hikari got up from her bed and walked a bit towards the center of her room where she crossed her arms and continued to stare down on the floor, with her back facing Ryuk's.

"It..." Hikari sighed. "I-It got worse during junior high school, those three years I wish I c-could take back and start all over. I-I was always picked on all because people think I'm either too weird, too special or too different. I was tricked and lied to by people whom I thought I could trust, I-I was harassed, stepped on, ridiculed, judged..." She tightened her arms around herself as she felt a tear escape from one of her eyes.

"I-I hated every minute of it. I t-tried to blend in as much as I could, I t-tried to be active at everything I do, b-but no matter how hard I tried..." Hikari paused for a minute to get her bearings before she continued. "I...I wasn't able to s-satisfy anyone." She said this while shaking her head.

Ryuk just sat on her bed and listened to Hikari explain, and noticed how the more she talked about it, the more she stutters. How he hates it when she stutters, but he's not letting it bother him this time. The more Hikari talked, the more interested he was. He listened to every word that spoke out of Hikari's mouth as she continues to talk and explain.

Hikari sniffed and wiped a tear from her face as she continued. "I gave up during my first year of high school. N-No matter how hard I t-tried to make friends and f-fit in with the crowd, n-no one wanted to be my friend. I g-gave up doing everything and j-just focused on my studies. That was all I can do.

When I get into university, I c-can forget about everything that has happened and move on. I-I can be in an environment where no one would know who I am or all th-that I have achieved or even knows w-what had happened."

By now, tears began to fall from Hikari's amber eyes. She closed her eyes tightly to prevent them from falling, but it was of no use. She placed a hand over her face somewhat embarrassed, and felt her shoulders shake against her will.

"I...I just w-want people to see me for me, t-to be treated as a normal person." It sounded as if Hikari's voice was cracking a bit. "P-People who respects my intellect, and doesn't give a c-crap about who I am and all of my s-successes."

Hikari turned around to face Ryuk, and despite the room being dark, Ryuk could make out Hikari's reddened eyes from her tears. She took a deep breath and stated, "In fact...that's one of the things I like about you, Ryuk."

Ryuk shot up as soon as she heard him say that. What did she mean by 'like' him? Humans normally fear Shinigami, and he knows Hikari still fears him a little, but what could she mean by that?

"**Why's that?" **He had to ask.

"When you first came to Earth, when you first met me..." Hikari took another deep breath when she felt her voice beginning to break. "Y-You didn't know a thing about me. You know how smart I am, how gifted I am, and yet you never even cared. You...You're actually the first person I met in a long time who actually treated me like a human being."

"**Well...because you are one, aren't you?" **Ryuk asked rather obviously.

"Exactly!" Hikari snapped, waving her arm at Ryuk in a form of gesture. "In this world, that's very hard to find these days! There are some people in this world who doesn't give a crap about others, and that includes me! I know that you're a Shinigami! You guys could care less about humans! Hell, I know you don't even care about me!

Despite that..." Hikari pushed her hair back as more tears streamed down her face. "You still treat me like how I should be, how people should be. Even when you don't care about me, even though you're here just because I own the Death Note, knowing how you talk to me and treat me is just as important to me than knowing how you feel about me and being entertained just to kill your own boredom."

Ryuk stayed silent. He didn't know what to say. There was a time where Shinigami have acted crudely to humans, but that was oh so long ago. It's true that Shinigami could care less whether a human lives or dies, nor do they care about the well-being of humans. If he wanted to, Ryuk would make Hikari's life a living hell. He never had. He didn't come down to the human world just to make things worse for just one human...except for that tiny slip-up he made a while back, which was quite tempting at the time in his defense. The Shinigami Realm was just so boring and he needed something to kill his boredom.

But for a human to actually be thankful for a Shinigami? It's true that Hikari was thankful to Ryuk for dropping the Death Note in the human world just so she could use it to make the world a better place. He didn't realize until now that she was also thankful to him for treating her just like an average person, but he never once cared about her.

But now he's not sure. Ryuk does felt a little attached to Hikari, but feeling attached to someone and caring for someone are two totally different things. After all, didn't he himself stated to Hikari when they first met that the Death Note is also the bond between humans and the Shinigami? Of course they share a bond, but it's nothing like a master and a pet or between two friends.

Are they even friends? You think almost two months would be plenty of time for two people to be friends by now. When Hikari felt comfortable to the point where she had stopped stuttering and pausing when she talks to Ryuk, they always have decent conversations with each other whenever they're alone together. Hikari helps tend to Ryuk's apple cravings and doesn't seem to mind it one bit, and not to mention she had been keeping him entertained using the Death Note to kill criminals around the world.

What has Ryuk ever done in return for Hikari? Other than that stunt he pulled on Ayumi and the others who were tormenting her and also telling her that someone was stalking her, as well as answering her questions regarding the Death Note, that was basically it. He felt that they had somewhat bonded, but not to the point where he would consider Hikari to be a friend, nor even care about her well-being.

Tonight might change that though.

Hikari turned around and walked over to her desk where she sat down and faced her computer. She leaned her head down on her desk as she began to sob. "S-Sorry. I...I just need a minute here..."

Ryuk scratches the back of his head. It's one thing to be shy around girls sometimes, but he knows not one thing how to deal with crying girls. He remembered seeing somewhere that physical contact, like a pat on the back or even hugging, sometimes help. He's not much of a hugging person, so what else is there?

Ryuk got up from the bed and walked up behind Hikari. He placed a hand on her back and began to rub small circles all over. He figured since Hikari has always been helpful to him, he should at least do something in return.

It was a good few minutes before Hikari was finally able to calm down, with Ryuk's help. She reached for a tissue from the tissue box on her desk and begin to rub her eyes and blow her nose. Ryuk withdrew his hand as Hikari started to get a grip on herself.

"Th-Thanks," Hikari said through her tissue. "I-I needed that."

Another thought came to Ryuk's head. How could he have forgotten something of vital importance? He never really got around telling Hikari about it, or that he never really bothered. Still, maybe it would help change the topic to help Hikari get her mind off of her problems.

"**No prob. You know, if it'll help even more, I have some more juicy information that I think may interest you."**

Hikari withdrew her tissue and turned in her chair to face Ryuk. She pushed her hair out of her face as she looked at him with somewhat of a confused look on her face.

"More information? A-Are we still playing this game? 'Cause I don't want to tell you anymore than I should be."

Ryuk shook his head. **"No, no. I feel you told me enough already. You answered my question and satisfied my curiosity, so the least I could do is tell you something I think you may find useful. Mind you that this has nothing to do with your predicament with L or your stalker."**

Hikari leaned back against her chair. "Y-You don't have to. You can just tell me later."

"**You're the holder of the Death Note, and since I'm attached to you, you have the right to know."**

"Know what?" Hikari raised a brow.

"**Have you ever wondered what makes a Shinigami and a human different from each other? Apart from being different species?" **Hikari listened intently as Ryuk begins to explain. **"There are two things, actually. Have you ever wondered why Shinigami have to write names down in the Death Note?"**

Hikari shrugged. "From all I heard, they take human souls to satisfy themselves. I never heard of Shinigami actually taking lives until I first met you."

This sure was distracting Hikari from her problems, so so far so good. At least she's not upset nor is she thinking about it anymore.

"**You humans sure come up with stupid excuses," **Ryuk commented. **"It's because we take human lifespans for ourselves."**

"L-Lifespans?" Hikari repeated. She took a moment to ponder about it and then asked, "As in how long a human lives?"

"**That's right," **Ryuk explained. **"Let's say a human was predetermined to die at the age of sixty, but a God of Death wrote in the Death Note that this human would die at forty. Sixty minus forty equals twenty, right? A Shinigami can take those twenty years and add them to lengthen their life.**

**So as long as we don't slack off, even if we were shot in the head or stabbed in the heart, a God of Death cannot die through mortal means. However, no matter how many names you write in your Death Note, your lifespan will not increase. That's the first difference between Shinigami and humans who possess a Death Note."**

Hikari stared on the floor and rubbed her chin. "So that's why Shinigami have to write names to the Death Note...that's pretty interesting. So you can live longer, right?"

"**Precisely." **Ryuk smirked at what he was about to say next. **"The second difference may interest you even more. Though this has less to do with lengthening life and more of cutting it short."**

Hikari looked up at Ryuk when she heard him mention the last sentence. "W-What do you mean?" she asked with a hint of curiosity and a bit a fear.

Hikari lets out a squeak and instantly leaned back when Ryuk got uncomfortably close to her. Seriously. Has a Shinigami ever heard of personal space before?

"**A Shinigami can tell who the person is just by looking at their face. We know them instantly. Do you know why?" **Ryuk's red-yellow eyes stared down at Hikari's amber eyes as if they were making some kind of connection. Hikari couldn't help but to see her reflection in Ryuk's eyes, as if they were made of mirrors. **"Because through a Shinigami's eye, their name can be seen above their heads. Not only that, but we can also see their lifespan as well."**

"N-Name and l-lifespan?" Hikari repeated.

"**Yes. In fact...I can see your name and lifespan right now." **A small gasp escaped from Hikari's lips. So Ryuk had seen her name and lifespan all this time and she never noticed? He never told her until tonight?

Ryuk can plainly see Hikari's lifespan as well as her name above the numbers floating above her head in red letters and numbers. Judging by how large the number is, Hikari looks like she would live for a very long time, though Ryuk would never flat-out tell her.

"**If I convert those numbers to human time, I can tell you how many years you have left, but there's no way I'd ever tell you that. I may have a big mouth, but even I wouldn't go that far."** Ryuk chuckled before going on. **"Shinigami never have to worry they won't be able to kill a person just because we don't know their name. And every time we do take a life, we know exactly how many years we're going to receive.**

**Our eyes just aren't the same, and that is the second difference between you and I."**

Hikari blinked. Ryuk was right. All these facts about the Shinigami really _are_ interesting. Hikari barely learns anything everyday, since she technically knows it all, but this one definitely takes the cake. She always heard tales and stories about Shinigami, but everything Ryuk had explained about her really flushed all of those myths down the toilet.

"**However..." **Hikari turned her attention back to Ryuk as he begins to explain some more. **"If a Shinigami were to drop a Death Note and a human picks it up, he can grant that human the Eyes of the Shinigami." **Hikari gasped again and sat up straight in her chair.

"S-So a human can see people's names and lifespans? Not just Shinigami?" Hikari asked just to be sure.

"**Only the holders of the Death Note, but only if a deal were to be made," **Ryuk answered. **"A deal that has been with us since ancient times."**

"And what's the deal?" Hikari asked. "What does this have to do with cutting life short?"

Ryuk chuckled. How Hikari is going to love this answer.

"**The price for Shinigami Eyes..." **Hikari almost jumped out of her seat when she noticed that Ryuk's eyes were glowing. They were glowing devil red, making Ryuk look even more frightening than before.

**"_...is half of your remaining lifespan._"**

Hikari placed a hand over her mouth in shock. "Half of my remaining lifespan?" Hikari repeated.

"**Yeah." **Ryuk answered again. **"In other words, if you were to live for another fifty years, it would be twenty five. If a year, then six months. It's the key part of the code we Shinigami go by."**

Since Ryuk stated earlier that he wasn't on anybody's side and wouldn't help Hikari out, there's no way for him to lend her his powers. She would have to pay for them with her own life.

Ryuk lifted his hand up towards Hikari, as if he was offering his hand to her. **"If you give me half of your remaining lifespan, I will grant upon you the Shinigami Eyes. Well then, Hikari...**

**Do we have a deal?"**

Hikari looked down at Ryuk's hand and then back up towards Ryuk's gaze. If she were to have the Shinigami Eyes, she would know everyone's names just by looking at them. If possible, she would eventually figure out her stalker's name as well as L's real name. Heck, she would know _everyone's_ names.

This would help her use the Death Note much easier. She would be able to use the Shinigami Eyes and the Death Note to get back at those who had done her wrong, to those who have hurt her, to those who shun her.

That just made this deal all the more tempting.

_**End of Chapter Six...**_

* * *

><p><strong><span>Author's Note:<span>**Okay, so you all probably know what Hikari's answer will be, but I'm just gonna leave it here for now. I have the next chapter all done and ready to go, but I'll wait till this Thursday to upload it.**  
><strong>

To be honest, I actually wanted to write some development with Hikari and Ryuk's relationship. No, there's gonna be no romance between the two. I meant their actual friendship, though they're still a little ways away from reaching that goal. Besides, this is gonna be an LxFem!Light-centric story...eventually it'll be, but not anytime soon.

Hey, for a character to grow, there always has to be character development. If there's none at all, then...there would be nothing interesting in the story itself! Typically, the characters tell the stories...well, the writers write the stories but...you get the picture! And I have some plans for the other characters too to have their own developments, which again, will happen eventually.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, expect another one sometime this week, and as always, I don't care for reviews, but if you wanna leave one, go right ahead. Till Thursday!


	7. Chapter 7

**Give Unto Me**

**By HonestFFWriter**

**Rated:** _M (duh)_

**Genres:** _Drama & Romance_

**Pairings:** _LXFem!Light, and others coming soon...  
><em>

**Summary:** _AU. Hikari Yagami's life changed one day when she came into the possession of the Death Note. She never imagined how greatly it would change._

_****AUTHOR'S NOTES: ****_Short chapters are short. I wish I could've add more, but this is the best I could do in terms of this chapter. I hope you guys still enjoy this chapter.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter Seven...<strong>_

"**So...has anyone seen Ryuk around lately?"**

"**Maybe he was serious about dropping his Death Note."**

"**It was probably picked up by some human before he could get to it."**

"**No way! Then he'd be stuck there until the rest of that human's life or the Death Note get's destroyed! That could take a while."**

"**Yeah. I can't imagine Ryuk doing something so boring."**

"**But you know what? I heard he was actually carrying **_**two**_** Death Notes."**

"**Seriously? But why would he need two?"**

"**Beats me. I'll never understand that guy."**

...

Ryuk lifted his hand up towards Hikari, as if he was offering his hand to her. **"If you give me half of your remaining lifespan, I will grant upon you the Shinigami Eyes. Well then, Hikari...**

**Do we have a deal?"**

Hikari looked down at Ryuk's hand and then back up towards Ryuk's gaze. If she were to have the Shinigami Eyes, she would know everyone's names just by looking at them. If possible, she would eventually figure out her stalker's name as well as L's real name. Heck, she would know _everyone's_ names.

This would help her use the Death Note much easier. She would be able to use the Shinigami Eyes and the Death Note to get back at those who had done her wrong, to those who have hurt her, to those who shun her.

That just made this deal all the more tempting.

"Ryuk..." Hikari said rather softly. "It's...tempting. Really, it is. B-But I...well..." She turned in her chair back towards her desk. "I'm afraid I'll have to...

_refuse_."

Ryuk withdrew his hand as he looked down at Hikari in disbelief and shock. She said that the deal was really tempting, and he figured after she told him about her problems, it would make her all the more tempted to take the deal just to get back at those who did her wrong.

"D-Don't get me wrong," Hikari said in a sympathetic tone. "As much as I am interested in having Shinigami Eyes, I would rather continue on living for as long as possible. That way, I can create an ideal world free from evil and not only have plenty of time doing so, but also live long enough to see it."

"**Yeah well..." **Ryuk simply shrugged out of disbelief. **"I thought I'd let you know that the deal existed just in case. Though the offer is still available if you change your mind."**

Hikari nodded in agreement. She reached for her lamp and turned it off, darkening the room completely. She grabbed the Death Note and simply laid on her back on her bed as she looked up at her ceiling, with her hair fanned out.

"Is there...anything else I should know about?" Hikari asked.

"**No. Nothing else."**

_**Probably,**_ Ryuk finished the sentence in his head.

Hikari closed her eyes and gave in to the comfort of her bed as she lets out a small yawn. "Well, alright...I guess."

"**You guess?" **Ryuk somewhat repeated.

Hikari opened her eyes and stared up at her ceiling again as she explained, "Well, to be honest, I think...I would've considered the deal if you were to offer me wings instead of eyes. It...would be interesting to fly around, see the world from the sky, watch it become even better..."

The way Hikari was describing it sounded somewhat dream-like with the way she spoke. When she was a child, she once had a dream where she found herself flying through the sky, looking at the world below her at night. She still remembered the cities below her with their lights shining ever so brightly in the night, with the clouds swirling and dancing around her above, and the full moon shining it's beautiful light down before her.

If only those dreams would come true.

"**You'd stand out if you sprouted wings," **Ryuk spoke up. **"Not to mention that the police will have no trouble finding you."**

Hikari could've sworn she had almost fallen asleep when she was remembering her dream as if that dream was pulling her back in time to when she dreamt it just so she could experience it's beauty all over again. Hikari snapped out of her little trance when she heard Ryuk spoke up.

"Oh, well I uh...I was only kidding," Hikari said. _A little._ She sat up on her bed and took the Death Note in her hands as she stares down at it. "But you know, of I were to bargain for eyes and wings, the next thing you'll know, I may end up becoming a Shinigami myself. If it were possible."

She hid the fact that it would be interesting to even become a Shinigami herself. That way, she wouldn't have to worry about dying, she'd be able to see people's names and how they have to live, and be able to fly all she want. That would be like a dream come true.

"**There used to be a way...but it was a very long time ago. We Shinigami forgot about it in time," **Ryuk explained. **"Though, I doubt you have anything to worry about. Even without the eyes and the wings...you're already a worthy Shinigami in **_**my**_** eyes...no pun intended." **He said that last sentence as though he was intrigued and proud of Hikari.

Hikari looked up at Ryuk in a questioning posture, so Ryuk decided to explain. **"I have told you before that we Shinigami barely do anything these days. The truth is, the Shinigami Realm is slowly rotting. We live meaningless and empty lives. The reason we take human lives is because we ourselves are afraid to die.**

**The truth of the matter is that we had forgotten why we exist in the first place. In fact, I doubt there's any reason for our existence at all."**

A disheartening look came to Hikari's face. That was a terrible thing to say, about how people don't see any reason why they exist. Of course there are some reasons why humans existed, but not Shinigami?

"**What I'm saying is compared to that, you're becoming a much more impressive Shinigami." **Ryuk finished.

"Uh...thanks," Hikari said slowly. She looks down at the Death Note in thought. "But I kind of don't like to be compared to a Shinigami." She shrugs. "I'm just a plain human using a dangerous item to the make world better for _other_ humans." She opened up the Death Note and started to look through the pages of the many names she had written prior.

The next thing she said had Ryuk surprised, "Still, just because the Shinigami Realm is rotting away doesn't make it any less significant than the human world."

"**Huh? Why do you say that?" **Ryuk asked out of curiosity.

"Well, the human world changes whenever a Shinigami comes to the human world every hundred or thousand years, right?" Hikari pondered out loud. "I kind of think it's unfair that that while this world is expanding in many ways, the Shinigami Realm has to rot." Hikari looked up at Ryuk right in the eyes. "When you return to your world from this one, couldn't you find a way to use what you learn here to change it for the better? Would it be possible?"

Ryuk didn't know what to say exactly. He has heard of satanists and cults who are um...crazy over the supernatural and such before, but Hikari has to be the first human he met who has shown interest in the Shinigami Realm. It's one thing to show interest, but also to care about it's well-being?

"**Why the interest?" **Ryuk asked. **"Why would you care whether the Shinigami Realm rots away or not?"**

"You told me that there's no reason for your species' existence," Hikari reminded him. She shook her head a bit. "Maybe you guys might've forgotten what your purpose is. You all are called Gods of Death for a reason, right?"

Ryuk scratched his chin in thought. Hikari _does_ have a good point. Come to think of it, most of the Shinigami back in the Shinigami Realm do slack off a lot, waste their time sleeping away or gambling, taking a life or two every once in a while. Hikari did say that they are called Gods of Death for a reason, so why not act like _actual_ Gods of Death?

Ryuk chuckled a bit out of realization, and said, **"Well Hikari, I never realized it until now, but you're quite the positive thinker."**

Hikari nodded in agreement as she looks down at her Death Note some more. "Thanks. That's why I'm using the Death Note to make the world a better place, after all." A question came to mind, but she has to know.

She looked up at Ryuk again and asked, "Hey Ryuk, you guys like to call Earth the human world, right?"

"**Uh, yeah?" **Why the sudden question?

"So...does that mean that there are more worlds out there, aside from the Earth and the Shinigami Realm? I mean, also aside from the other planets out in the solar system."

Ryuk knows that answer very well, but how to give it to Hikari gently? Ah hell, why not?

"**Hate to break it to you kid, but we're not entitled to say." **Ryuk answered rather bluntly.

"Why's that?"

"**It's not in our place in say."**

Hikari flips through her Death Note again. "Well, okay I guess." She then returned to the first page where the rules are. A sudden thought came to her.

"Hey Ryuk, you know how I made every criminal die every hour just by writing cause of death and time of death, right?"

"**I've noticed throughout the week. Why bring this up again?"**

"I know I can also write down accidental death," Hikari said as she looked over the first page where one of the first people she had killed had indeed died from a car accident. "Which means with the Death Note, I can make people die in any way I want them to. If I also write down the time of death, I can also write events leading up to their death, can't I?"

"**You should," **Ryuk answered, and then asked, **"Why bring this up?"**

A few ideas popped into Hikari's head. "I think I have an idea. I already know I have six minutes and forty seconds to write down the conditions, but just in case, I need to know how far I can go." She got up from her bed and sat by her desk where she turned on her lamp and her computer.

She lets out a sigh. "Okay. Let's see..."

**The Next Morning...**

The Task Force headquarters were busy as usual following any leads and going over evidence that they believe would be of some help, all of them completely unaware of L's intention of hiring FBI agents to investigate most of the detectives whose relatives may be a student based on one of his earlier assumptions.

Chief Soichiro Yagami was going over the time of deaths of the victims with a couple other agents when he was interrupted by his phone ringing on his desk right beside him. He excused himself and answered the phone.

"Chief Yagami here...is that right? Another six inmates had died last night?" Some of the officers turned to their chief when they heard what he said. Soichiro turned to his fellow officers and stated, "It's him." What he heard next on the other line was something he didn't expect to here.

"What? Bizarre behavior before they died? Can you be more specific?...So they didn't die of heart attacks?"

"_Well, four of them died of hearts attacks, but it's not that simple," _an officer on the other line explained.

"_Before one of them died, he drew an image on the wall of his cell using his own blood and then just died from the blood loss. Another left a letter before he committed suicide, but it doesn't seem to be like a will or anything meaningful. Another inmate escaped from his own cell and made it all the way to the staff bathroom before he died of a heart attack."_

...

The young man heard a beeping sound coming from his computer. He crouched down and clicked on an icon on his desktop that brought up the camera that shows an image of Watari on the screen before him.

"What is it, Watari?" He asked.

"_Another six inmates died last night, but the circumstances of three of them are much different than what we've seen thus far." _Watari explained over the feed.

"What do you mean by different?"

"_I'm sending you a letter as well as a couple of photos that were taken at the scene."_

The young man nodded. "Okay."

Three boxes then popped up on his computer screen: two were the photos while the other was the letter. One of the photos shows the drawing on the wall that was done in blood, but there were drop marks so it's almost hard to figure out what it is. The other was the inmate's body who had died in the staff restroom.

The young man looked over them thoroughly and then rested his eyes on the letter. "Hmm...it sounds like this one is scared of Kira finding him. It's believable that this victim might've been generally afraid and wrote this." He places a hand on his chin in thought. "But we know Kira can control the time of death. What if he can also control one's actions leading up to their death?

In which case..."

...

"_**Chief!"**_

Soichiro got up from his seat and turned his attention towards Watari's direction in the back of the room with the laptop computer facing back at him with L's font on the screen. Everyone else looked back at L wondering what was going on.

"_**We cannot release the details of these men's deaths to the medias. As far as they're concerned, these are just heart attacks. I believe that Kira is performing some kind of test using these criminals. If that's the case, we would only be giving him the results if this has been leaked to the public."**_

Soichiro nodded in agreement. "Right. I understand."

"Now he's experimenting on his victims?" One of the officers asked.

"Horrible."

Soichiro's hands balled up into fists out of anger. Kira is acting as if this is all just a game, when in reality, these are human lives at risk here.

"He's playing with these people's lives as if this is all just a game! It's unforgiveable!"

...

The young man looks over the photos and the letter again for the fifth time as if he had missed something important. "If Kira is using these victims as test subjects, what is he trying to achieve?"

**That Night...**

Hikari had just finished copying her father's files into her computer. She exited out any trace that she was there before she began to browse through the files. She saw a file that was dated on that day, so she took a look. She looked over the files and clicked on each of them, which three boxes popped up on her screen.

"Ryuk, the results are in," Hikari announced. "So I really can manipulate people's deaths any way I want. I never thought of this before."

She sounded as if she was rather excited. Ryuk sat up on Hikari's bed as he asked, **"What do you mean by that?"**

Hikari looked over at both her Death Note and her computer as she explained, "One of the inmates had escaped from his cell and ran into the staff restroom where he died of a heart attack just like I had written in the Death Note. Another drew the same drawing that I drew in the notebook that made him die from blood loss. The third wrote the same letter that I had also written before I made him commit suicide."

"**Well, I'm impressed," **Ryuk said. **"Even I wouldn't have thought of something like that."**

"These three did what I want them to do," Hikari explained. "For the other three, I wrote down their deaths differently that are considered impossible."

"**Impossible how?" **Ryuk asked again.

"I wrote down that this one inmate would die in front of the Eiffel Tower within an hour." Hikari shrugs. "Everyone knows that it's physically impossible to get from a jail in Japan all the way to Paris, France in such a short time, so he just died of a heart attack.

For another one, I wrote that he would draw L's face. This didn't happen. I guess you can't draw someone's face if you have never met them, right?"

"**Makes sense."**

"For the last one, I wrote down that this inmate would write, 'I know L is suspicious of the Japanese Police'. I kinda thought this would happen, but it didn't. I guess you can't make anyone write what they don't know or something they'd come up with.

I guess even the Death Note cannot pull off the impossible, but now I know I can control one's actions before their death."

"**Very impressive, but what is all of this leading to? What's the point?" **Ryuk asked.

"These'll just keep the police guessing for a while with these clues I left behind," Hikari explained, before she averted her gaze down a bit. "L right now is probably trying to decipher those clues I left for him." Hikari then looked over at the Death Note again towards the two whose cause of deaths were of the blood loss and suicide.

Despite the pain knowing that L would find her and sentence her to death, Hikari doesn't want to end up killing him. She has to play innocent long enough for the police not to suspect her. Would anyone ever guess a nice, timid, innocent girl like her had ever committed a murder in her life?

...

The young man looked over at the photos again for the umpteenth time trying to decipher these clues and messages. He knows that Kira is behind this, he just doesn't know where to start.

"If Kira used those criminals to conduct an experiment of some sort, it means he's about to start something. If he moves now, there's a good chance where the FBI will notice someone acting suspiciously."

He places a thumb on his lower lip deep in thought. His eyes still continues to scan over the photos and the letter. He knows there's something there. What is it?

"It seems that Kira has a different goal in mind altogether. Could this drawing and letter be some kind of message?"

A small soft gasped escaped his lips at the sudden realization. He looked over at the bloody drawing on the wall and then at the letter. Why didn't he see it sooner?

The drawing on the wall, despite the droplets of blood, may not look like anything at first, but upon further looking at it, the young man noticed that the shape of the drawing looks like that of a heart. Not a human heart, mind you, just the common shape of a heart. He reached his finger on the screen and traced it over the image of the heart. Within the shape of a heart, it looked like there were many cracks that you'd see on a glass, as if...

What if the cracks within this 'heart' mean that it's hurt, or broken? Like a broken heart, someone whose heart would hurt if a tragic event had occurred.

"A broken heart..." he whispered softly under his breath. "But why would Kira...?" He looked over at the letter again, and suddenly noticed something too. The young man looked over at the letter again that reads,

_Lord, have mercy._

_Please understand for I cannot take this anymore._

_Forgive me, but I fear that Kira may come after_

_Me soon. I'd rather die by my own hands than his'._

The young man looked over the letter again. He noticed how some of the words are capitalized when they weren't supposed to. What if...He used his eyes to scan over the capitalized words, and came to a startling conclusion.

_L, Please Forgive Me._

"Could this be a message?"

He looked over at the image of the broken heart and then at the hidden message in the letter. This...is this Kira's doing? Was this intentional?

It can't be. Kira would never be sympathetic about killing those criminals. If he was, he wouldn't be killing them, would he? Kira even went so far as to kill off Lind L. Taylor who was posing as L at the time. He thought Kira would have no regrets killing his victims.

It sounds as if Kira is apologizing to L. But for what? For killing countless lives? What is it that he's apologizing for, anyways? If Kira hated what he was doing, he should've quit a long time ago, yet he hasn't.

Then why is Kira apologizing? What does this have something to do with the broken heart drawing?

The young man looked at the drawing and then at the message again. He has to explore every possibility there is. Maybe it's a cry for help? No, that couldn't be. Maybe the broken heart means that Kira is starting to regret his actions and he wants L to forgive him for this?

But why would he kill these criminals just to give L this message?

From what he learned so far, Kira may in fact be a student and that he's controlling the time of deaths just to cover it up, as if he doesn't want to be caught. The broken heart drawing and the hidden message may show that Kira is somewhat looking for sympathy.

This could show that Kira is a coward, so this throws the whole 'god-like figure' idea out the window. Or is it possible that Kira is trying to avoid the police and wants L to forgive him for these horrible acts he did and the acts he's about to do?

These crimes are unforgiveable. Why would L want to forgive Kira for committing these horrible crimes?

Or maybe Kira is just doing this just to throw them off completely. Kira did it before, so he would mostly likely do it again. You think someone as Kira would wage war against L and the police, but Kira has yet to take any action against them. Why?

...

Hikari stretched her arms up and lets out a groan as she stretched her limbs. She lets her arms fall and lets out a sigh of relief. As long as she keeps up with the innocent charade, she should be fine. She's not planning anything special, but just wanted to see how far she can go with the Death Note, and now she has a good idea how it works.

But what to do next?

KNOCK! KNOCK!

"_Hikari! Hikari, open up! It's me!"_

Both Hikari and Ryuk turned their attention towards the bedroom door as the knocking became persistent. Hikari instantly recognized her little sister's voice. She got up from her chair and called out, "I'm coming! I'm coming!"

Hikari opened the door and saw Sayu jumping up and down in excitement.

"Oh my gosh, sis! You're not going to believe this! You're not going to believe this!" Sayu cheered rather excitedly.

"W-What is it?" Hikari asked, a bit puzzled. Sayu was always happy, but never _this_ happy or excited unless something big had come up.

Sayu reached into her pockets and held up what looks like two tickets.

"You remember that stupid fundraiser I did for my school that I had to take part of?" Sayu asked rather begrudgingly. "Well guess what!? I was the _second_ person to raise a lot of money for my school!"

"Who's the first?" Hikari asked out of curiosity.

"Doesn't matter!" Sayu shouted. "What matters is is that I just won two tickets to Space Land!"

Hikari smiled and wrapped her arms around her sister. "Sayu, that's great news! Congrats!" She said proudly. She withdrew with her hands on Sayu's shoulders and asked, "You should start thinking about who you should bring with you. Have you figured out who yet?"

Sayu raised a brow. "Uh, Hikari?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't be stupid. Of course you're coming with me." Sayu said in a rather obvious tone.

"Wait, am I?" This had shocked Hikari, though maybe a little.

"You've been helping me keep up with my homework a lot lately, the least I could do is somehow return the favor," Sayu explained, and then held up her two tickers smugly. "And what better way to return it than to have a great time?" She then rolled her eyes. "Besides, Mom would probably make you come with me, anyways."

Hikari giggled and smiled at her sister. "I love to go with you, Sayu. When do you want us to go?"

"I can have us go whenever we want," Sayu explained. "Aww, what the heck? Why not tomorrow? It will be a day off, after all. Why not have fun?"

Hikari nodded in agreement. "Sure thing. Sounds like fun."

Oh how they don't know what tomorrow will bring.

_**End of Chapter** Seven..._

* * *

><p><span><strong>Author's Note:<strong> What can I say? Short! Also, I was hoping to use Sayu a little more in the story, so that's why I wrote her in here near the end. You've guys seen the series, so you'll probably know what's gonna happen next. I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far, 'cause there's plenty more to come. Stay tune!


	8. Chapter 8

**Give Unto Me**

**By HonestFFWriter**

**Rated:** _M (duh)_

**Genres:** _Drama & Romance_

**Pairings:** _LXFem!Light, and others coming soon...  
><em>

**Summary:** _AU. Hikari Yagami's life changed one day when she came into the possession of the Death Note. She never imagined how greatly it would change._

_**_****AUTHOR'S NOTES:****_**_ My fellow readers, may I present to you...another short chapter. Eh, I tried. Still hope you enjoy!

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter Eight...<strong>_

"Hikari, come on! Hurry up!"

"Coming, coming."

The sun was out with a few clouds out, but the day was a bit chilly. It was almost the end of autumn and it would soon be winter, so everyone is all dressed down in jackets, gloves, and scarfs to keep themselves warm despite the warm sun beaming down on the earth.

Hikari followed Sayu down the steps towards the bus stop as she adjusted her red scarf around her neck. Hikari looked out of the corner of her eye and recognized a large man wearing a trench coat who happens to be looking in her direction out of the corner of his eye.

_He's still following me? Have to act innocent and pretend that I'm not doing anything wrong. Besides, what kind of mass murderer would hang out with her little sister, anyways?_

Ryuk was hovering beside Hikari as they finally made it down the stairs and watched Sayu run ahead towards the bus stop.

"Sayu, slow down!" Hikari called out.

"Come on, Hikari! Lighten up!" Sayu called back.

Ryuk crossed his arms. **"What's this about? Just hanging with your sister today?"**

Hikari nodded and whispered into her scarf. "Yeah. My stalker will probably see it that way, too. Just need to act innocent until he stops tailing me."

"**But this isn't just an ordinary day out, is it? I thought you'd be interested in your stalker's name so you can write it down in your Death Note." **Ryuk spoke.

"Do I have to repeat myself again?" Hikari asked.

"**Right, right. Better screw that halo in as tight as you can. One slip up and the police will know you're Kira in an instant." **Ryuk advised.

Hikari nodded. "That's what I plan to do."

Sayu waited for her older sister by the bus stop and watched Hikari finally catch up with her. Sayu said with a jokingly smiled, "Slowpoke!"

"S-Sorry," Hikari apologized.

"I know we're going to have a great time!" Sayu cheered, as she reached out and hugged Hikari by the arm. "I haven't been to Space Land for years! I know that this is gonna be awesome!"

Hikari nodded and smiled. It's not often she gets to hang with her little sister, so this day could actually be enjoyable.

"Besides, it's better than having to lock yourself in your room all day with your nose in the books, huh?" Sayu asked rather jokingly. "Bookworm!"

Hikari giggled. She knows her little sister didn't mean it. Sayu always likes to joke around, but she means well. Hikari looked out on the street and saw that the bus is coming. "There's the bus."

Sayu jumped in the air. "Sweet! Can't wait!" She cheered.

Back towards the steps, watching the Yagami sisters was the same man from before hiding behind the stairway. He watches as the bus pulled over with both sisters waiting patiently to get on. The man reached into his jacket and pulled out a note-pad and begin to write and look over his notes.

"_During the week, she goes to school and cram school every other day. Spends her time with her family on her days off. A normal teenage girl, a hardworking senior, a caring sister, possible victim of harassment in school. Chief Yagami's daughter, Hikari Yagami. His youngest daughter, Sayu Yagami, in her second year of junior high, an average young teenager with high hopes. No cause for suspicion for both."_

The man watched as Hikari lets her sister Sayu on the bus first and then followed after. The man looked down at his note-pad some more before coming to any conclusion.

"_At any rate, I'll be done with my surveillance today and that'll be it."_

He puts his note-pad back into his jacket and immediately headed for the bus before it could take off. He got on just in time and saw the two sisters sitting together on the second-to-last seat on the bus. He walked passed them and sat behind them at the back as the bus begins to drive off.

"This is gonna be so much fun! What do we think we should do first when we get there?" Sayu asked.

Hikari simply shrugged. "You won those tickets. You get to choose."

"No fair!" Sayu joked. She leaned back against her seat and placed two hands behind her head. "Coming from the girl who didn't want to go out until entrance exams are over!"

"But that was before I scored number one on the Nation Practice exams," Hikari explained. "Next year, you should think about studying for your own entrance exams, Sayu."

"Augh, you're such a nerd!" Sayu joked again. "If it's okay with you, can we swap brains for a while? I really could use some smarts right about now!"

Both sisters laughed at that statement as the man watched from behind them. Despite following Hikari for the last few days, he saw there was no way that this girl could be Kira. Then again, L did ordered for them to look at every possibility at the suspects just in case. Besides, he saw by observing her that Hikari is a shy girl, who looks like she wouldn't even hurt a fly.

He was actually there when he witnessed Hikari being bullied whenever she leaves school, especially what happened the other night at her cram school. If Hikari was Kira, she would've just killed off those who would do her wrong. Her little sister Sayu is a bright, young girl whose full of energy. There's no way someone like her would have it in her to kill someone. He just doesn't see how either one of these girls could be Kira.

...

The ride felt pleasant. There weren't that many people riding the bus, the scenery was wonderful to look outside the window, the weather was nice. Hikari leans her back against her chair as Sayu kept talking on and on about random stuff.

It makes one wonder: once all the criminals and horrible people are wiped off from the earth, would everyday be like this? Peaceful and pleasant without having to worry about anything? That's what Hikari hopes to achieve, and she would enjoy every minute of it.

What she doesn't realize, however, that this peaceful scenario was too good to last.

It was a while before the bus could come to a complete stop to pick up a passenger. A man with his hands in his pockets walked into the bus with a smug look on his face.

Hikari looked at the man in the front, and could immediately tell that something wasn't right, which brought a sick feeling in her stomach. Her fears came true as the man withdrew his hands from his pockets, but from one of the pockets he held what looked like a gun.

Hikari felt as if something caught her breath in her throat. This does _not_ look good.

The man cocked his gun and aimed it for the driver's head.

"STAY IN YOUR SEATS UNLESS YOU WANNA DIE!"

Everyone remained in their seats as they gasped in fright at what was going on right in front of them. Sayu immediately cling onto Hikari's arm at this sudden change of events as the man sitting behind them looked hesitant.

_A bus-jacking? You got to be kidding!_

"Everybody shut up!" The hijacker shouted, and this silenced the passengers. "If anybody moves, I'm putting a bullet in their head!" He turned his attention back to the driver as he demanded, "Alright driver, you listen to me! I know you got the number for Space Land's office on ya! Call 'em!"

"O-Okay." The bus driver said as calmly as he could as he reached his hand for the phone and held it up. He said to the phone, "Th-This is Sasaki, calling from bus 174!"

"Tell them what's going on and no tricks either!" The hijacker shouted.

The driver tried to keep his calm while driving and talking on the phone at the same time, as well having, oh I don't know, a gun aimed right at his head!

"M-My bus has been hijacked! And he's holding a gun to my head!"

The hijacker withdrew his gun and jerked the phone out of the driver's hand. "Give me that!" He then placed the phone over his ear and shouted into it where the other passengers can hear him while aiming the gun all over as if to stir up fear. Some of the passengers started to cling to each other as in an attempt to protect each other.

"You heard what he said! Now you listen up! Have a female staff member bring all of Space Land's cash! Have her meet us at two bus stops from the park and don't make me wait! If you mess with me, or get the police involved, I swear I'll kill every single one of these passengers!"

He threw the phone to the ground and smashed it into pieces with his foot.

The bus was now dead silent as the air was filled with fear and despair. Sayu clung onto Hikari for dear life. "W-What are we going to do, sis?" She whispered in hopes that the hijacker doesn't hear.

Hikari shook her head slowly. "I...I don't know." She whispered through her scarf.

_Maybe I should've taken the Shinigami Eye Deal, _Hikari thought in her head. One of her hands was in her pocket, and her fingers was fidgeting a piece of paper that she kept in there.

"There's nothing to worry about." They both heard a voice whisper behind them. Both Yagami sisters turned their heads and saw Hikari's stalker leaned forward towards them. "If something goes wrong, I'll take care of it."

Hikari reached into her pocket and took out the piece of paper and a pen and began to write down whatever it was she was writing. Sayu wasn't paying attention as she had her eyes glued to the man behind them.

"There's no need to pass notes back and forth." The man said assuringly. "So long as we keep our voices down, he won't hear us over the sound of the engine."

Sayu didn't look convinced. "But why should we listen to you?" Sayu whispered rather harshly. "You could be working with him for all we know."

"W-What do you mean by that?" Hikari whispered.

"Remember that movie we watched last weekend?" Sayu reminded her. "When something had gone wrong, the hijacker had an accomplice working with him during the jacking. He could be working with him."

"S-Sayu!" Hikari whispered harshly. "D-Don't be so stubborn!"

They both looked to make sure the hijacker wasn't listening. He didn't hear a thing, so that's good. The man had a concerning look on his face, but he took a deep breath.

_I guess I have no choice. I'm fully confident that none of these girls is Kira. If any of them were, this guy would've died of a heart attack right about now._

He reached into his pocket and took out his wallet. He opened it up and handed it to Hikari over her shoulder. "Here's my proof. Take a look."

Hikari took his wallet and looked at his I.D. Sayu leaned her head in to take a look herself. Despite the current situation they're in now, she couldn't help but to mutter, "Wow. This guy's an actual FBI agent." She smiled. "Sweet."

_So this guy's with the FBI? _Hikari thought. _So this stalker really is with L. He must've need outside sources so he got the FBI involved to investigate everyone with connections to the Japanese Police._ Her eyes scanned over his I.D. again and saw his name. _His name is Raye Penber. _

Hikari handed the wallet back to Raye who kindly took it back. "O-Okay. I trust you. I w-won't bother asking what an FBI agent is d-doing on a bus in the first p-place."

"Hikari, now's not the time for your stuttering!" Sayu whispered. "This is great! This guy can stop him!" She turned to face Raye. "You do have a gun, right?"

Raye nodded his head. "Yes I have one."

"So you can get this guy now, right?"

S-Sayu!" Hikari whispered harshly.

Sayu looked back at Hikari with a puzzled look. "What? I'm just asking."

"If it comes down to it, you both can rely on me," Raye whispered assuringly.

Hikari nodded. "Okay." She looked down at the piece of paper she was writing down. _I just need his name._

When desperate times calls for desperate measures, Hikari may not have a choice but to take the Shinigami Eye Deal. It's the only way to get this guy's name and stop all of this before it gets out of hand. Then again, she could always rely on Raye Penber to step in should something go wrong.

The hijacker pointed his gun at an elderly couple, where the elderly woman cling onto her husband in fear when the hijacker shouted, "Shut up, you old hag! You want me to shoot you right now!?"

That was when Raye made a connection. He knew he saw this guy somewhere before, but he wasn't sure if he did until just now.

"That's right," he whispered, though it sounds like he was whispering to himself rather than to the Yagami sisters. "This guy. Kiichiro Oroseda. His face was over the local news two days ago. Some junkie who tried to rob a bank and ended up killing three people before he got away. He's _extremely_ dangerous."

Hikari heard him despite the engine noises and the hijacker's yelling erupting through the bus. It looks like she won't have to rely on Raye or take the Shinigami Eye Deal after all. She hurriedly wrote something down on the piece of paper. She shoved both the paper and the pen into her pocket, only to accidentally let the paper slip from her hand and fall onto the floor.

_Shoot!_ She shouted in her head.

Hikari looked towards Kiichiro and then back at the paper she had dropped. He wasn't looking, so she decided to take the time to grab for it. Hikari leaned down and reached her hand for the paper when...

"Don't move, you little bitch!"

Hikari's eyes widened in fear as she looked towards Kiichiro's direction. This is bad.

"What the hell is that!?" He made his way towards the back of the bus as Hikari leaned back up in her seat. Kiichiro saw that it was a crumpled up piece of paper and suddenly made an assumption. "Oh, a little smart ass! You all were planning something back here, weren't ya!?"

Sayu leaned towards the window as much as she could out of fear while Hikari and Raye remained still in their seats. Kiichiro reached down and took the paper and began to unfold it. Raye didn't like it. If this guy read what Hikari had wrote earlier, then he'll know they were planning something!

Kiichiro looked down at the paper and read it in his head. What the hell was this? It says on here that he was gonna die? He looked at Hikari angrily and aimed his gun right at her head, where Hikari flinched when she felt the cold metal against her head.

"Is this some kind of joke, you little bitch!? Huh!? Is it!?"

Sayu was about to shout at the guy to leave her sister alone, but Raye reached his arm over the seat and placed his hand on Sayu's shoulder in a firm grip as if to tell her not to get involved or it'll make things worse than they are now.

"Answer me or I'll shoot! Don't make me ask again!" He pressed the gun against her head as hard as he could, as Hikari closed her eyes and winced in pain.

They drove under a passing bridge, darkening the bus a little bit. When they did so, Kiichiro could've sworn that he noticed something odd in the shadows as soon as the bus lit up again. He then looked back towards the bus...

and he screamed bloody-murder.

Kiichiro moved his gun from Hikari's head and dropped the paper he still had in his other hand and aimed it for the back of the bus. "What the hell are you!? You in the very back! What do you think you're doing!?"

Raye looked concern. Did he realized that Raye was up to something? But wait, he wasn't even looking right at him. Kiichiro looked as if he was looking _next_ to him.

"D-Don't mess with me!" Kiichiro shouted again. "How long were you hiding back there!?"

Hikari looked at the back and saw that it had worked. She averted her eyes towards the aisle floor and made out a simple shadow that only _she_ could see...well, two now.

Standing in the back of the bus, despite his composure, Ryuk was a bit startled. It sounded as if this human was looking right at him, shouting at him...does that mean he sees him?

"**What's this? You're talking to me?" **Ryuk took a step closer. **"You can actually see me right now?"**

Kiichiro started to grip the gun in both hands as they start to shake out of fear, pointing the gun right at Ryuk. "St-Stay there you! You, you! Keep away from me, you freak!"

Raye realized that something was wrong. Despite not seeing Ryuk, he had mistaken that Kiichiro may be seeing things. Since he's a drug addict, he assumes that he may be going through the side-effects.

_This isn't good! He's hallucinating! _Raye thought. He hesitated, before he shouted so that everyone could hear, _"EVERYONE, GET DOWN!"_

Everyone immediately got down in their seats as much as they could. Hikari placed an arm around her sister in protection as they both got down, too.

"What's going on!?" Sayu asked.

"J-Just stay down, okay!? Everything's g-going to be okay!" Hikari tried to assure her.

Ryuk took another step closer, and noticed the piece of balled-up paper on the ground. **"Oh, I get it," **Ryuk realized. **"That piece of paper that Hikari accidentally dropped was a page taken from the Death Note." **He turned his attention towards Hikari, who looked back at him in return. Sayu had her eyes closed to notice this. **"Since she tricked this guy into touching it, he's the only other one on the bus who can see me."**

Hikari heard him talk out loud, and despite that Kiichiro can see him too, he's too afraid to even listen to a word that was coming out of Ryuk's mouth.

Ryuk chuckled, and turned back towards Kiichiro, where he began to walk right towards him. **"That's so smart!"**

"GET AWAY!" Kiichiro shouted, and then pulled the trigger.

For a second there, Hikari saw the bullet went straight at Ryuk, only to have it phase right through him. She almost forgot that Ryuk at one point told her that Shinigami cannot die by getting shot or stabbed at. To be honest, she got scared there for a second.

Ryuk only smirked his usual smirk. He explained, **"Sorry, pal. I'm a Shinigami, so I'm afraid your bullets aren't going to kill me."**

By this point, Kiichiro was so scared to the point that he started to scream his lungs out. He lost it. He started to lose it when he started to fire right at Ryuk and kept shooting and shooting at him. Hikari closed her eyes again as the sounds of the gun going off rang loudly through her ears.

Each bullet fired from the gun went right through Ryuk and into the back window. No matter how many times Kiichiro kept shooting, it was all in vain. Ryuk stood there taking the aim as he kept being shot at over and over. By this point, the window in the back of the bus shattered into millions of pieces on impact from the shots. Raye covered his head with both of his arms as some of the pieces had fallen onto him.

Kiichiro kept pulling the trigger, but no bullets came out. He kept pulling it and pulling it, but then he realized out of shock that he was out of ammo. He looked down at his gun in fright, and then back at Ryuk's deadly figure.

"**Anyone who touches the Death Note can see me. I have to stay until it's finished or I see you die, whichever comes first, and a Shinigami can't die from being shot." **Ryuk spoke, though Kiichiro was paying him no mind. **"I said all these things one time to another. Hikari, after all, _is_ the top-ranked student in the country, so I shouldn't be too surprised."**

As Ryuk kept talking, Raye realized that Kiichiro was out of ammo. He took this chance to get up from his seat and ran for Kiichiro, phasing right through Ryuk as he does so. Kiichiro didn't realize that Raye was running for him. He kept his attention on Ryuk, and realizing that there was no other option, Kiichiro dropped his gun and ran towards the front of the bus where he shook the driver by the shoulders.

"STOP THE BUS! LET ME OFF!"

The bus immediately came to a screeching halt, and everyone immediately sat up to see what was going on. Kiichiro ran for the front door and forced the doors opened, but upon doing so, he lost his balance and fell out of the bus and onto the hard concrete ground of the street.

He struggled to get up, but heard a loud screeching sound heading straight for him. He turned to look, and more to his horror, a car speeding up and heading straight for him.

Back in the bus, Sayu looked out the window to see a car coming, but Hikari wrapped her arms around Sayu and pulled her sister away, forcing Sayu to collide her face on Hikari's chest.

_"H-Hikari, what's going...!?"_

_CRASH!_

Silence once again fill up the entire bus. Raye stood by the front of the bus and he and the driver had watched what had happened right in front of them. The elderly couple plus the other couple looked out the windows and also saw what had occurred, especially Hikari.

_"W-What happened? What's going on?"_ Sayu's voice muffled on her older sister's chest. _"Hikari, I can't breathe!"_

Hikari's face started to turn blue at what had happened in front of her. This was like that incident all over again. She had always committed murders with the Death Note, but she was never really around to see them happen. In fact, this is the _second_ time that this had to happen. This made her cling onto Sayu much more.

_"H-Hikari! Hikari!"_ Sayu protested.

Outside the bus, Kiichiro laid dead with a huge dent in front of the car, his eyes wide open, as if he had seen the Grim Reaper right before him at the moment of his death. By this point, blood began to pour from his once-living body onto the concrete ground.

"Sayu, whatever you do, don't look out the window." Hikari said.

"Hikari...!"

"Please tell me you won't."

Sayu nodded. "I won't if you would just let go!"

Hikari then lets go of Sayu, and despite the urge to look out the window, Sayu kept her word and kept her eyes closed and her face away from the window. Hikari got up from her seat and picked up her piece of paper. She unwrapped it and read down the contents she had written before.

_Kiichiro Oroseda. Accidental death. Begins to flip out and empties his gun, though no one gets hurt. Gets scared to the point where he gets out of the bus, where he gets struck by a car._

She didn't knew it would happen, but it did. Before Hikari heard of this guy's name from Raye Penber, she had written down the cause of death and details of the death afterwards. After she had written Kiichiro's name down, it still happened.

She's beginning to learn more about the Death Note every day, it seems. What she didn't expect to happen was to learn the identity of her stalker, who works for L.

_**End of Chapter Eight...**_

* * *

><p><span><strong>Author's Notes:<strong> You're probably wondering how this is gonna tie in, right? Despite the length of the chapter, this'll have a big impact later on. How? Wait and see.


	9. Chapter 9

**Give Unto Me**

**By HonestFFWriter**

**Rated:** _M (duh)_

**Genres:** _Drama & Romance_

**Pairings:** _LXFem!Light, and others coming soon...  
><em>

**Summary:** _AU. Hikari Yagami's life changed one day when she came into the possession of the Death Note. She never imagined how greatly it would change._

**AUTHOR'S NOTES: **So so so so so so so sorry for the lack of update! I've been away at vacation and then had to catch up on a lot of work when I got back. But now I once again have some time to continue on this story.

This chapter is kinda sucky to be honest, so I did what came to mind. Still hope you enjoy.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Chapter Nine...<em>**

A few police cars surrounded the bus and the car as many officers took a look at the scene before them. A couple of them talked to the bus driver and a couple of the other passengers from the bus to figure what had happened. The other officers had blocked the traffic to wait until the ambulance and the medical examiner arrives.

Raye stood by the back of the bus and stared at the scene before him. He didn't imagine his day to happen like this. He heard footsteps, and saw both the Yagami sisters exiting the bus from the back, with Hikari's arm wrapped around Sayu.

"You gonna be okay, sis? You don't look so good." Sayu commented.

"I...I'll be fine," Hikari managed to get out.

"Look, if you want, we can go to Space Land another day. I'm cool with it." Sayu grabbed Hikari by the arm. "Besides, we need to get you home. You look like you're about to barf."

All Hikari could do is nod in agreement. After what she had saw, she figured that going home would be best right now. However, Sayu looked as if she was trying to see the crime scene, but Hikari kept blocking her site.

"Hey, Hikari! I want to see!"

"Sayu, please. It's too...too gruesome," Hikari tried to explain. "We should get home."

"Come on! At least let me see the body!" Sayu whined. "Serves him right for taking everyone on the bus hostage like that!"

"C-Can you please quit whining?"

"I'm not whining! I'm complaining! There's a difference, you know!"

"Sayu, please. Let's just go home."

Sayu rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Ugh, fine!"

Both Yagami sisters were about to leave when they heard someone call out to them.

"Hey. You two."

Hikari and Sayu turned around and saw Raye Penber standing before him with both his hands in the pockets of his jacket. He stared at the sisters with a stern look as he said, "Listen very carefully. I came to Japan as part of a secret investigation, so the local police can't find out that..." He looks around and cleared his throat. When he saw nobody else was listening, he turned back at the sisters. "Well, that I..."

Hikari nodded. "I-I understand. D-Don't worry about it. We won't tell anyone else w-we talked to you, and th-that includes our father." She looked down at Sayu. "R-Right, Sayu? Promise to k-keep it a secret?"

Sayu smiled and nodded. "Sure thing." She winked. "Don't worry. I won't tell a soul." She then turned to Raye and asked, "So what kind of secret investigation? Does this have something to do with Kira?"

Hikari nudged Sayu a bit. "Sayu..."

"What?"

Instead of answering her, Raye cleared his throat again as if to avoid answering the question. "Please, excuse me." Hikari and Sayu watched as Raye cut through traffic and disappeared among the many number of cars.

By this point, Hikari was relieved. Raye doesn't suspect a thing. Now she has to be cleared of any suspicion. Besides, it's best not to let the police know that she came into contact with an FBI agent either. If their father found out about this, he would let L know. The police will just think this is just an unfortunate accident.

"Come on, Hikari," Sayu said grabbing her sister by the arm. "We should get going, too."

"Oh. Right." Hikari said. "Come on. Let's go."

**That Afternoon...**

It did felt a bit weird to be back in her home country, but at the same time, it felt good to be back home. She's been away for so long, she almost forgot about the local customs and such.

Naomi Misora sat in a chair by the window, where the sun was beginning to set which shined a beautiful light that shined through and filled the hotel room with an orange glow. She turned the page of the book she was reading that captivated her interest when she heard the door opened.

She turned her attention away from her book and towards the door and saw Raye Penber walking in, dropping his suitcase on the floor and was beginning to strip himself of his jacket, with a look that screams exhaustion plastered all over him.

Naomi smiled and greeted him, "Hey, welcome back."

Raye simply tossed his jacket on the bed as he muttered, "Ah, what a day."

Naomi noticed something was wrong, so she closed her book and set it on a table next to her and got up from her chair. "Raye, what's the matter?" She asked. "Something happened, didn't it?" She made her way towards the kitchen counter as she commented, "I've never heard you sigh like that."

Raye sat down on another chair and leaned back as if to seek it's comfort as he leans his head back. "Yeah. The bus I was on got hijacked if you could believe it."

Naomi took out two tea cups from a cabinet as she turned to her fiance in surprise.

"A bus jacking?" She repeated in shock.

Naomi started to poor tea into both cups as Raye explained, "Some junkie. Robbed a bank a couple days ago and thought he tried taking on a bus today. Didn't think this kind of thing happen here."

Naomi listened as she prepared the tea. She asked, "So you were on the bus when the hijacker got on?"

"Yeah." Raye ran a hand through his hair. "In the end, the guy freak out, jumped out the bus, and got hit by a car."

Naomi sets the kettle down and stared carefully at the steam erupting from both cups. She folded both her hands into fists on the counter top, as if she was looking to be ready if the steam would try and attack her.

"Did he die?" She asked suspiciously.

Raye shrugged. "Yeah, probably. I couldn't really stick around to see what happened to him."

Naomi took both tea cups into her hands and walked over to her fiance. "You know..." Raye opened his eyes and looked up at Naomi, and immediately took note of the look she was giving him...the same look she always has whenever she's deep in thought.

"It's hard to believe that all of that is just a coincidence, don't you think?" Naomi asked.

"What do you mean?" Raye asked raising a brow.

"Think about it. You got on that bus because you were investigating someone, right? And now you're telling me that this criminal is most likely dead. Doesn't that suggest that you..."

"That's enough." Ray interrupted. "Look darling, you and I both know used to be one of the best agents in the FBI. But now you're my fiance, Naomi. We talked about this. You're not an agent anymore, so why not leave it alone?"

"But..."

"You wouldn't get involved in the Kira case and you wouldn't do anything dangerous. That's what you promised when we decided you come with me so I could meet your parents in Japan. You do remember that, don't you?"

Naomi placed a cup on the table right by Raye and then placed the second cup on the other side and then took a seat right across from him. She placed both her hands on her lap with a sympathetic look on her face.

"Yeah. I guess you're right." She shrugs. "It's just a force of habit. Sorry about that."

Raye shook his head. "No, I should be sorry. Let's forget about it." He then smiled. "Anyway, once we have a few kids running around, you'll probably be so busy, you'll forget about being an agent. You outta be occupied with a few things, too."

Naomi smiled back.

"More importantly..." Raye took the cup into his hands and felt the warmth coming from the cup. "Tell me how to convince your dad I'm worthy of his daughter." He laughed a bit. "Kira doesn't scare me _half_ as he does!"

Naomi chuckled.

* * *

><p>Hikari sat at her desk and stared down at a couple of blank pages of the Death Note lying right before her with a pen in her hand.<p>

**"So, are you going to write down that agent's name? The one from the bus?" **Ryuk asked behind her.

"Ryuk, we talked about this," Hikari said.

**"Oh. Right."**

Hikari reached for the bottom drawer of her desk and opened it up. "I'm in the clear. They don't suspect a thing about me." She reached her hand in there and took out a red, crisp apple that she kept in there. She closed the drawer and simply threw it over her shoulder where Ryuk caught it.

**"Whoa. Didn't know you kept one hidden!" **Ryuk exclaimed.

"Consider it a thank-you for being of help," Hikari said. "To be honest, I didn't knew you would be involved."

**"But you wrote this guy's name in the Death Note, didn't you?" **Ryuk asked.

"On that scrap I kept, yeah," Hikari nodded. She turned her chair to look at Ryuk and explained, "I kept one with me just in case something like that would happen. I didn't know his name until I heard the agent say it. That's when I learned a new trick of the Death Note."

**"Oh?"**

Hikari reached into her pocket and took out that same scrap of paper that she used before. She unwrapped it and handed it for Ryuk to see. Ryuk took a bite of his apple and took the paper and read over it.

**"So that's why you didn't expect that guy to see me in the first place. Even the Death Note can do mysterious things in its own way."**

He handed the paper back to Hikari as she explained again, "But the thing is, I wrote down the cause of death _before_ I wrote his name, and it still worked."

**"It did? Impressive. Even _I_ didn't know that." **Ryuk commented before finishing his apple.

Hikari smiled and nodded before turning back towards her desk. She took the pen in her hand again and said, "Since I'm not a suspect, I have nothing to worry about anymore. Now I can work in peace."

It felt like a huge breath of relief for Hikari. The FBI doesn't suspect her at all, nor do they tie today's event with her, and so she's safe. Everything went exactly as planned. She has nothing to fear or worry about anymore. Now she's safe from the police, especially her secret.

Though since she's not a suspect, she still felt a bit hurt. L would stop at nothing to find her and to bring her to her own execution. Hikari still feels a small linger of betrayal stirring up in her heart. Even though L has waged war with her, she doesn't hold it against him. She still looks up to him no matter what it takes for him to find her.

She was still a little shock from today's events, so she feels a bit uneasy. Hikari barely spoke a word after what had happened, which makes her not want to use the Death Note at all for the rest of the day.

But she wanted to send L another message, and to keep up killing criminals. She'll take a day off when it's convenient. Right now, she has work to do.

**The Next Day...**

_"L."_

The young man turned around and stared at the computer on the floor before him, the brightness of the screen almost hurting his eyes upon impact.

_"Another victim. This one appears to have left a suicide note."_

The young man walked over to his computer as he stated, "Please, send it to me."

_"Very well."_

The man knelt down in front of the computer as a box popped open on his screen. His eyes scanned over the suicide note and it read,

_For those I leave behind, may whatever_

_Gods have mercy_

_Of Me, but I will not face_

_Death by Kira._

He paid attention to the capitalized letters on the letter, and knew that this was indeed the work of Kira, because this has somewhat the same kind of writing similar to the last victim who had written a similar suicide note. He found the hidden message,

_For Gods of Death._

"Another message by Kira." His eyes gazed down on the floor in thought. He stated from memory,

"_L, Please Forgive Me, for Gods of Death..._

Could Kira be telling me that Gods of Death exist? _For Gods of Death_ what, exactly?" He turned his attention back to the computer and spoke through the microphone. "Listen Watari, tell the police to monitor prison populations closely for the next few days. Kira may use other suicide notes to communicate with us."

_"Understood."_

**One Week Later...**

Raye puts on the jacket and straightened it out. "This'll be my last day of this investigation unless L calls for me. I shouldn't be late."

He turned to face Naomi as they both smiled. "Be safe, okay?" She reached up and kissed Raye on the lips, Raye returning the favor. They both pulled apart.

"I will. Don't worry." Raye walked over to the table and grabbed his suitcase. "Don't wait up for me, okay?"

Naomi nodded. "Okay."

Naomi waited until Raye left the hotel room. She looked at the clock and saw that it was 8:27 in the morning. Perfect. She should wait a half hour before she decides to embark on a little investigation of her own.

Just because she's not an FBI agent anymore doesn't mean she won't stand by and do nothing while others risk their lives to catch Kira.

Naomi walked over to the desk and took out a file from a drawer. She opened it up and looked down at some photos she had taken a few days before. Unbeknownst to Raye, while he wasn't looking, she looked through his notes and took the time to take quick snapshots.

Raye did not write in his notes about anything involving the bus jacking incident, but the day it happened was also the last day that he was investigating Chief Yagami and his family. Naomi saw that the one he was stalking the most was one Hikari Yagami.

The FBI are tailing police officer's family members who has a schedule similar to that of a high school and university student who may fit the time, and quickly noticed how Hikari's status fits that schedule.

She looked over at a few other photos that contain notes concerning Hikari, and saw that she was just an average student and spends her time with her family, but is quite timid, sometimes stutters and pauses when talking, and is a victim of harassment at school. That would indicate that Hikari is a victim of bullying.

This news somewhat pulled a couple strings on Naomi's heart when she first read it over. She was bullied herself when she was in school because even at a young age, she was really intelligent. Life can be so ironic nowadays.

But still, Hikari doesn't seem like the type of person to kill anyone. Of course Naomi has other notes concerning the Deputy Director and his family, but details about him and his family are vague at the moment since Raye has not finished his investigation on them yet. Today was supposed to be the last day.

Still, Naomi can't wait. If she doesn't take action now, who knows what Kira may do. She knows about that stunt L pulled using Lind L. Taylor as bait. It would only be a matter of time before Kira makes his next move. The FBI may handle him if he tries anything now, but she has to take action just in case something happens.

She wouldn't want this to be like the Los Angeles BB Murder Case all over again.

...

He heard the news that the twelve FBI agents were to be done with their investigation today, and would be returning to America first thing tomorrow morning...well, save for one. He heard from Raye Penber that he's due for a long stay in Japan and won't be going back to America anytime soon.

Maybe if he can get Raye to help him in this investigation a little more, he would find it extremely helpful to go over the list of potential suspects and see if anything would match Kira's description.

The young man's train of thoughts were interrupted when heard his computer beeping.

_"L, Chief Yagami would like a word."_

The young man knelt down in front of the computer and a box opened up on his computer screen, showing Soichiro Yagami's face. He does not look happy one bit. In fact, he looked more stressed out than he did when the investigation had first started.

_"L, earlier today, an FBI agent brought in an officer's kid for shoplifting," _He explained over the webcam. _"So I called the director from the FBI to find out why there's an agent here in Japan. According to him, it seems you arranged the FBI to come to Japan and investigate officers here whose not only associated with the Task Force, but their certain families, as well."_

"Yes. I did." The man said rather obvious.

_"So how do you explain this?" _Soichiro asked. _"Are we suspects in our own investigation?"_

"I felt that it was necessary to cover Kira's identity." The man explained.

_"I cannot accept that! I find it unbelievable that you would spy on us! The very people working with you on this case!"_

The man heard whispers from the other end of the speakers coming from the officers on the other end from the Task Force.

_"Hear that? Well I knew all along we couldn't trust that guy."_

_"Why the heck would he do this? Which officers did he have the FBI follow?"_

_"So much for L's sense of justice."_

The man's hands folded into fists. Though he wasn't shown to be angry, his body language proved otherwise. He was used to this sort of talk, and did what was necessary for the sake of the investigation. Still, it felt as if his chest ached. No, not his chest. His heart.

_"L, we have another victim. A suicide note was found at the scene."_ Watari spoke.

Another box opened up on the screen, and the man's eyes scanned over the letter, which read,

_Granted, I wish I die from better circumstances, but for_

_Me, this is for my own good. I must do_

_This act or I will meet the end of Kira's_

_Power._

The young man pieced together the puzzle. In his mind, he pieced together the two previous messages left behind by Kira.

_L, Please Forgive Me._

_For Gods of Death._

_Granted Me This Power._

Power? Does that mean this power that Kira possess was granted to him by Gods of Death? Why does he use it, then? Why use this power on criminals? If Kira had killed of Lind L. Taylor who had posed as him before, it's obvious Kira wants L dead, right?

Unless Kira knew that Lind L. Taylor was a criminal. No, there's no way he would've known. But if Kira wanted L dead, then why didn't he take any action on those working on the Task Force? Why not take action on the FBI agents?

He pieced together what he had gathered so far.

Kira has a strong sense of justice, Kira has to be a student, Kira doesn't want to get caught, Kira sounds somewhat regretful and scared based on the message he sent him as well as that bloody drawing of the broken heart, and wants L to forgive him.

The young man looks up at the ceiling.

"Kira, who are you? What are you trying to tell me?"

**That night...**

When Soichiro got home, he gathered the family together to the dining room for a family meeting. He didn't say why, but just that he wanted them to gather together since he felt that his family needed to know. The family sat around the dinner table and Sachiko, Hikari, and Sayu all have their attention on Soichiro.

Sayu leans on the table as she asked, "So what's with the family meeting, Dad?"

Soichiro leans back against his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. He spoke, "I figure you will all find out about this sooner or later, so I might as well tell you now. I don't want you to be alarmed. I'm sure you heard about the Kira investigation?"

Sayu and Hikari nodded their heads in unison.

"Well, I'm currently in charge of it."

Sayu's face brightened up at that news. "Seriously? That's great, Dad! You're like the best cop ever!"

"That's not the point I'm trying to make," Soichiro continued while shaking his head. "You see, the truth is, the case has reached a difficult turning point in the case. At this time, we still have no suspects, and what makes it more difficult is that the FBI has been sent here to investigate certain officers on the Task Force. We weren't told who, exactly."

Sayu looked over at Hikari at that sudden mention, and Hikari blinked hastily a few times to give Sayu the hint not to tell their parents about the bus jacking that had occurred the week before as well as their encounter with Raye Penber. Sayu nodded her head a little in understanding.

"You all recall that media stunt L had pulled some time ago?" Soichiro asked. "We have speculated that Kira may want L dead." Hikari stood as still as a statue, trying her best not to show any reaction.

"We have also speculated that there is a possibility that Kira may want to take action against the Task Force as well, but so far he hasn't made any move. Many of the detectives have quit just in case."

That news had scared Sachiko and Sayu a little. Sayu leaned against the table towards her father and exclaimed, "Dad, maybe you should quit too. It could be dangerous. I mean, what if Kira tries something?"

"She's right," Sachiko spoke. "If something go wrong, you might get killed! Your life is much more important here than it is over your job!"

Soichiro shook his head again as he said, "I can't. I would never forgive myself if I walk away from this. I will not sit back and let evil triumph."

Hikari couldn't help but to wrap her arms around herself once again. If her father had hinted that Kira is evil...imagine how he would take it if they all found out that Kira is sitting in the same room as them.

"But Dad..." Sayu spoke.

"Please, dear," Sachiko begged.

Hikari hadn't spoken a word since the family meeting had begun. She wanted to say something, but what can she say? She took a big breath through her nose.

"Dad...there's something I have to tell you..."

Soichiro looked across the table towards his eldest daughter. "What is it, Hikari?" He asked.

"Well...it's just that..."

She felt like she wanted to tell them, but does she really have the heart? How would they all react if she told them right here and now that she's Kira? Sayu probably wouldn't believe her at first, but her parents...

Hikari shook her head a bit. She looked over at her father in the eye and said,

"If you want to pursue Kira, Dad, and if he does try anything, just...please be careful. If something does happen to you, I...I don't know what we would do without you."

Soichiro uncrossed his arms and leans them against the table. "Hikari, you have nothing to worry about," he assures her. "I'll be fine. You leave all the worrying to me and the rest of the Task Force." His face turned stern suddenly. "But in case something does happen..."

"D-Dad, please don't," Hikari interrupted. She read enough stories and watched a lot of movies with this particular setting to know where this is going. "Don't say it. You said you'll be fine, why are you...?"

"Hikari, this is very important. If something _should_ happen to me, I want you to watch over your mother and your sister for me." Soichiro said.

Hikari shook her head. "D-Dad, don't say that. I-It'll be fine. E-Everything will be fine. When Kira is caught, y-you'll be...you'll be..."

That's a promise she's willing to keep. She would never kill her own father, not even to save her own life. But if Kira does get caught, which is her, and if her father does find out...

This brought tears in Hikari's eyes as she placed a hand over her face. She got up from her seat and muttered, "E-Excuse me..." She then headed straight for the stairs, and Soichiro heard her footsteps, followed by a door slamming shut.

He lets out a sigh and placed a hand over his forehead. "Oh Hikari..."

...

Hikari locked her door as usual and leans her back against it. When she swore not to kill innocent people, she meant it, and that includes L and her father. She's fully aware that her father will not die by her hands, that she'll make sure of. But when she mentioned that once Kira is caught, he and everyone else will still be safe no matter what. But then again, if they do catch Kira, and found out that Kira is actually Hikari...

Hikari shook her head and placed a hand on one side of her head as tears begin to stream down her face. No, she can't think for the worse here. Besides, she's clear. She's not a suspect. She has no reason to worry anymore. So why is she still fearing for the worse?

**"Hikari?"**

Hikari looked up and saw Ryuk standing before her. Though it was dark in her room, she could make out Ryuk's figure very clearly.

"Ryuk..." She was able to get out, but wasn't able to finish her sentence.

**"What is it?"** Ryuk asked.

Before he knew it, Hikari ran up to him, wrapped her arms around him, and she began to cry openly. Ryuk just stood there, wondering what the hell to do now. Again, no expertise on how to deal with crying girls.

He went intangible for a minute when he felt his reflexes kicking in, but Hikari remained put and still kept her arms around Ryuk's waist and her body leaning against his. Ryuk lets out a sigh and rubbed his hand down over his face. What to do? What to do?

He decided to just do what he did last time to comfort Hikari. Ryuk placed his hand on top of Hikari's head and began to run his fingers through her long, brown hair. He kept doing this pattern over and over as Hikari cried the night away.

**The Next Day...**

Soichiro gathered his remaining officers and detectives of the Task Force for an important meeting. They all knew that this was Kira-related, and so they all sat at their seats and have their full attention on their chief in front of the room, with Watari and the laptop with L on the other side in the back of the room.

"I am sure you are wondering why I called this meeting?" Soichiro began. "Well, as you all know, many of our officers have called quits on this investigation. It's true that Kira can kill from a distance, determine the time of death, and control his victims' actions before their deaths. As we all know, Kira is evil and unforgivable wasting away countless lives for his own purpose.

There's a small chance where we may all be killed by Kira. This is unlikely, but I speak for all of us when I say that this case is by far the most dangerous we have ever tackled. Think about your own lives, your families, and all the lives you may leave behind. I am giving you all a chance right now.

If you want to leave this investigation, now is the time. You will _not_ be demoted if you choose not to stay. You have my word on that."

Matsuda listened every word coming from his chief. He's still technically new to the Task Force, and of course he still has his whole life ahead of him, but there's no way he would quit now. He came too far in his career, so he can't back down now.

Though he wished it would be the same for everyone else in the room.

Soichiro continued his speech, "But if you're not absolutely sure, then we don't need you. You have to be willing to fight against Kira even if it means making the ultimate sacrifice. That is all."

All the officers and detectives begin to whisper to each other and talked about whether or not to leave the investigation. Many say that they would leave, others say that they're not sure.

Still, it's a situation of life and death.

**Meanwhile...**

Naomi had located the same bus driver involved in the bus jacking incident the week before, and set up a confrontation with him. She showed him the photo of when both she and Raye went to the beach last summer, and asked him if he remembers Raye.

The bus driver nodded as he looked over the photo. "Yes, that's him. I remember him because he yelled at everyone to get down when that psycho went nuts." He handed Naomi back the photo. "However, I don't remember any of the other passengers. A lot happened since then, so my memory's kinda fuzzy."

Naomi nodded in understanding. "I see. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it."

Soon afterwards, she went to where the crime scene had taken place, the place where the hijacker had died on the street. Naomi could remember a small red stain on the ground, but could tell right away that it was blood. She looked around and noticed a bus stop not too far from where she was standing.

If the bus was heading towards where Space Land is located, then the bus route would be coming from the opposite direction. Naomi adjusted her purse strap over her shoulder and went on her way.

"It's a bit of a long shot, but if what I'm thinking is right, Kira could've been one of the passengers on that bus that day. If that's the case, then Kira must live close to this bus route."

Naomi took out a photo of one of Raye's notes, and saw the address of the Yagami family written down. If L had ever taught her anything, then she must consider every possibility there is.

Though if Raye ever found out she was starting this little investigation on her own, Naomi would be in so much trouble.

* * *

><p>Soichiro looked around in the almost-empty squad room. He cannot remember the last time this room had ever been this empty. He was not alone, though. Watari and L were still there, but along with them were Matsuda, Mogi, Ukita, and Aizawa.<p>

"Four men, huh?" He commented. "Well, five counting myself." He folded his fingers together and laid his arms against his desk. "Still, I'm grateful to see that there is as many as four of you willing to risk your lives to face evil."

**_"The fact that you've chosen to stay means you have a strong sense of justice,"_** L spoke through the speakers. **_"I trust all of you."_**

Upon hearing that statement, Aizawa had a strange feeling that something was up. He turned around towards Watari's direction and stared at the computer screen on the laptop containing L's signature.

"Hey wait a second! L said that he decided to trust us now! But seriously, what reason do we have to trust him?" Aizawa spoke.

"Look L, as much as I hate to say this," Ukita spoke. "Even though all of us decided to put our lives at risk to catch Kira, we're the ones sticking out on the open."

"That's right!" Aizawa agreed. "You never show your face, do you? All you do is just give us orders! I don't see how you can expect us to work alongside you under those conditions."

Soichiro leaned over his desk looking at the back of the room with a stern look on his face. He actually agrees with his fellow officers, and since they spoke up that thought, that does make sense.

"L, if all of us are going to work together on this investigation," Soichiro spoke. "Then if you truly meant about trusting us, could you come here so that we can all meet in person?"

Silence filled up the room. Matsuda could've sworn he heard crickets chirping somewhere, but then again, he must be hearing things again. Finally, after a good few minutes as if L was taking this time to think, he finally spoke.

**_"The thought has already crossed my mind. After all, I could say that I trusted all of you. With that said, I want you all to keep what I'm about to say next a secret. I would very much like to meet all of you as soon as possible. Here's what I want you to do..."_**

...

**_"I'm staying in a suite at the Teito Hotel at the moment, but I'll be switching hotels every few days from this point on."_**

Soichiro and Matsuda arrived at the famous Teito Hotel and walked through the front entrance where they entered the lobby, greeted by a couple of greeters on the way in.

**_"I want you to think of these hotel rooms as the de-facto headquarters in this investigation."_**

Soichiro and Matsuda made it to a hallway and came across a couple of elevators. They entered into one of them and proceeded to head to one of the highest floors in the hotel building. Matsuda fought the urge to press all the buttons at once.

**_"If this arrangement is acceptable to all of you, then split into two groups, and stagger your arrival so that you come thirty minutes apart."_**

By the time they reached the top floor, Matsuda followed his chief out of the elevator and headed down the hallway where they were supposed to find the room they were looking for.

**_"Please arrange it so that you're all here at midnight."_**

...

The young man looked out the window and stared at the many buildings across the city in the Kanto Region, many of the them showing bright lights as if they were in a fight against the night sky to lighten the night up. He could almost make out his own reflection on the window, but he doesn't take note of it. He has something else in his mind.

"Kira, it seems you left me with no choice. I believe it would only be a matter of time before we collide. No matter where you run, no matter where you hide, I _will_ find you, even if I have to lure you out myself." He balled up his hands into fists.

"That's what I'm counting on."

Not too far from where he was, he heard someone knocking on his door in the distance. He turned his attention towards the door and called out, "It's unlock! Please, do come in!"

He watched the door handle turning, and saw it cracked open.

**_End of Chapter Nine..._**

* * *

><p><strong>AUTHOR'S NOTE: <strong>Again, sorry for the delay. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Of course I wasn't going to let Naomi do nothing. She's a pretty cool character, and I think it would be an interesting, and funny, idea to have her start her own little investigation behind Raye's back should worse come to happen.

Oh, and don't worry about certain characters, like Ide. You'll see him later on, as well as more of Sayu and others.

Also, quick question: should I or shouldn't I put Beyond Birthday in the story? I want to find a role for him to fit in the story, but I dunno. What do you guys think? Till next week.


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